A patient might ask the clinician: "How long will it take me to get back to sport?" or "How long until I'm feeling back to myself again?". These questions ask the clinician to make a prognosis - to predict the future.Often we rely on our clinical experience or intuition to answer with a prognosis. Sometimes we might know some prognostic factors, which can give us some big-picture ideas, but they're rarely enough to give the full picture.Today physiotherapists and researchers Daniel Feller and Dr Alessandro Chiarotto (Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands) explain prognostic prediction models: what they are, how they might help in practice, and what to look for when you're deciding whether a tool like the STarT Back is suitable for your practice.------------------------------RESOURCESWhen is a prognostic prediction model ready for clinical use?: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2026.13868