Dr Jo Abbott’s
Publication Library
Explore how hands-on musculoskeletal assessment can be understood, tested and developed as a disciplined measurement process — moving the conversation beyond the hands-on versus hands-off debate.
Browse the Library
Choose your department
Every paper, guide and download sits on one of six shelves. Step into the one you came for — or use the filters further down if you already know what you are looking for.
HODA-A™
For Clinicians & Educators
Hands-on assessment as measurement — perceptual calibration, reliability, and the science behind the hands.
The Body Systems™ App
FOR PEOPLE REBUILDING
Back Pain Systems™, BPS RESET™ and the module library — how the recovery ecosystem is built and how to use it.
Functional Health
FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE UNWELL
Laboratory assessment, gut and fatigue, nutrition and lifestyle medicine — the whole-person picture behind symptoms.
Movement & Biomechanics
FOR CLINICIANS & PATIENTS
Posture, alignment, load and rehabilitation — how the body organises movement, and what that means in practice.
Research & Evidence
FOR RESEARCHERS & STUDENTS
White papers, conference abstracts, protocols and measurement-science reference material.
Patient Reading Room
FOR PEOPLE IN PAIN
Plain-language guides, mostly free — written to be read on a bad day, not just a good one.
Not sure where to start?
Start with who you are
The same shelves, entered from a different door. These use the Role filter that is already on the page.
I’m a clinician
Assessment, reliability and reasoning for hands-on practice.
I’m in pain
Guides written for living with and recovering from persistent pain.
I’m a researcher
Measurement science, protocols and evidence.
I’m a student
Foundations, primers and study material.
Or search the whole Library
All publications
Your existing filter panel and product grid stay exactly as they are, below the departments.
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Will My Other Hip Need Replacing? What a New Joint Inherits
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartFor anyone facing a hip replacement: the genuinely good news, what “worn out” really means, why a new joint inherits the walking pattern that wore out the old one — and the two check-ups a new hip deserves. Plain language, fully referenced, free to download.
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The Human Instrument: Hands-On Assessment as Measurement
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartThe research story behind the series in four parts: the six settings of the pelvic see-saw, how a position becomes a programme, the laboratory proof that bodies hide effort — and the living study of 571 records that grew from it. Fully referenced, free to download.
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Run to Failure: Rethinking Wear and Tear Arthritis
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartThe maintenance argument: we service our teeth and our cars on a schedule, screen our athletes for their whole careers — and run the one machine we can’t replace to failure. Why joints wear from tracking, not mileage, and the service schedule that follows. Fully referenced, free to download.
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Hip Pain Without Injury: The Prediction in Her File
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartThe true story of one woman’s hip wear — predicted in writing on healthy joints, thirteen years before her diagnosis, with no injury anywhere in her file. Anonymised X-rays included; plain language, fully referenced, free to download.
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Is Walking Good for Your Joints? The Free Part of Walking
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartThe walking cycle in three beats — catch, carry, push — what that rhythm does for your joints, and the two ways a pelvis gets stuck, drawn from 549 case records. The plain-language edition of research paper RL-01. Fully referenced, free to download.
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Normal Scan but Still in Pain? The Picture Is Not the Pain
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartWhy scans so often disagree with how you feel: imaging findings in people who feel fine, real pain with clear pictures, what scans are genuinely for — and the question no scanner can answer. Plain language, fully referenced, free to download.
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Don’t Wait to Break: The Musculoskeletal Health Check
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartThe mission statement of the Patient Reading Room: why the world’s biggest cause of disability is the one thing healthcare never checks until it hurts — and the check-up that could change it. Plain language, fully referenced, free to download. Start the series here.
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Bilateral Hip Osteoarthritis: Eighteen Years to Symmetrical
£9.99 More InfoAdd to cartAn eighteen-year single-subject study: bilateral, radiologically symmetrical hip degeneration in a pelvis found bilaterally locked at mid-stance — with a documented wear-risk prediction made on healthy joints thirteen years before the imaging. Anonymised imaging included; fully referenced, free to download.
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Twelve Answers, One Word
£9.99 More InfoAdd to cartA single-subject study of pre-diagnosis symptom reporting: six months of structured monthly questionnaires in which every causal attribution — twelve of twelve — was “insidious: it just happened”, years before imaging found the reason.
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Mid-Stance Phase of Gait: Locked, Lost or Optimal Capacity
£9.99 More InfoAdd to cartThe mechanism paper of the Research Library: what the mid-stance phase of gait provides, the two ways a pelvis loses it, and the caseload and laboratory evidence for each — including the locked pattern that passes every conventional screen.
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Don’t Wait to Break
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartThe foundation paper of the Research Library: the evidence-based case for preventative musculoskeletal screening of the general population — the burden, the assumptions, the WHO’s screening criteria scored honestly, and the study that screening itself becomes.
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The Still Hand
£9.99 More InfoAdd to cartAn answer arrives when your hands are still and your data has run out. Was that intuition, or something else entirely, and does the certainty that comes with it mean anything at all?
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How It Feels Is Part of How It Sounds
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartWatch Ella Fitzgerald feel her pitch through her own cranium, and the science of interoception opens up. Fully referenced, with a ten-minute practice built in.
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The Accidental Chin
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartHumans are the only animal with a chin — and it may be for no reason at all. A free HODA-A™ paper on why humans have a chin, and how we read the body.
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Built, Not Born
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartPalpation isn’t a gift you’re born with — it’s built. The second HODA-A™ Calibration uses neuroplasticity to show that training palpation skills is deliberate work. A free PDF.
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Feeling A Single Atom
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartYour fingertip can feel the difference of a single atom. The first HODA-A™ Calibration makes the scientific case for palpation as measurement. A free, fully referenced PDF.
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HODA-A™ White Paper
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartThe most widely used instrument in healthcare is the only one never calibrated. This white paper sets out what to do about it.
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What Your Gut Is Telling You
£5.00 More InfoAdd to cartYour gut produces a daily report on your whole system. This free guide teaches you to read it.
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The HODA-A™ Constitution
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartThe foundational principles of Hands-On Data Acquisition & Analysis — twelve articles governing how HODA-A™ is taught, practised and evolved.
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The Body Systems™ Constitution
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartThe foundational principles of The Body Systems™ App— twelve articles that guide every programme, publication and resource in the ecosystem.
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The Body Systems™ App White Paper
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartOne app, multiple Systems — the thinking behind a whole-person platform for movement, recovery and health.
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Back Pain Systems™ White Paper
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartWhy does back pain keep coming back — and what would a system that actually rebuilds movement look like?
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Before the First Incision
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartHow much information does an experienced surgeon actually gather before making the very first incision?
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Before the First Obs
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartHow much information does an experienced nurse actually gather before taking the very first set of obs?
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Before the First Test
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartHow much information does an experienced doctor actually gather before ordering the very first test?
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Before the First Drill
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartHow much information does an experienced dentist actually gather before reaching for the very first instrument?
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Before the First Orthotic
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartHow much information does an experienced podiatrist actually gather before prescribing the very first orthotic?
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Before the First Rep
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartHow much information does an experienced movement professional actually gather before prescribing the very first rep?
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Before the First Cranial Contact
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartHow much information does an experienced craniosacral therapist actually gather before the first moment of contact?
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Before the First Treatment
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartHow much information does an experienced osteopath actually gather before the very first treatment?
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Before the First Adjustment
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartHow much information does an experienced chiropractor actually gather before the very first adjustment?
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Before the First Mobilisation
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartHow much information does an experienced physiotherapist actually gather before the very first mobilisation?
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Before the First Touch
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartHow much information does an experienced massage therapist actually gather in the first few moments of touch?
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Before the First Needle
£0.00 More InfoAdd to cartHow much information does an experienced acupuncturist actually gather before inserting the very first needle?