StudentPT

Worth Sharing!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:34:00 +0000

I feel that posting this may violate some of the mentioned issues, oh well :)
Be careful in this ever changing world in which we live in. I certainly thank Dr. Rutledge and Mr. Hua for this service:

Here is an important message from our legal department to tell you about new federal regulations that went into effect this month. We want to help you understand how these new regulations could affect you as a blogger on health topics.

“We are writing to let you know about revised Guidelines issued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on October 5, 2009 relating to endorsement and testimonial advertising. These new Guidelines go into effect on December 1, and reflect the FTC’s interpretation with respect to federal law relating to advertising. These new Guidelines specifically apply to bloggers and could impose liability on bloggers for endorsements or testimonials.

The revised Guidelines state that:

· The Guidelines apply to Bloggers and online word-of-mouth marketers and require them to disclose any material connection to a company when reviewing the company’s products or services (failure to disclose any payment or receipt of free product from an advertiser or someone acting on their behalf could expose you to liability);

· Both advertisers and endorsers can be liable for false or unsubstantiated claims made in an endorsement (if you were given a product for free or were paid to write a review, then the claims you make about the product must be accurate and substantiated);

· Advertisements containing consumer endorsements, or testimonials, must disclose what results a reasonable consumer could expect from the product and can no longer rely on a disclaimer that “results may vary”;

The complete revised Guidelines can be found at http://ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf. The FTC has also posted several short videos explaining the Guidelines at http://www.ftc.gov/multimedia/video/business/endorsement-guides.shtm.

It is Wellsphere’s policy that bloggers disclose publicly any interest that they have in any topic that they write about. Transparency is critical to your credibility with your readers and to your relationship with Wellsphere. In addition, you must be careful to confirm the accuracy of any statements that you make about a product or service that you are writing about and are responsible for what you write. Please understand that Wellsphere takes compliance with its policies and these Guidelines very seriously and failure to comply may result in the termination of your relationship with Wellsphere. I am happy to answer any questions you have and work with you to address any concerns.”

Have a wonderful day!

Good Health,
Geoff
--
Geoffrey Rutledge, MD PhD and David Hua
http://www.wellsphere.com

Day 4 of 4

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:36:00 +0000

way too early on a sunday morning, nonetheless, I'm excited to finish up this course. That is not to say I want it to end, but rather I am looking forward to completing the intake of all of the information. Is it just me or am I especially long-winded on minimized sleep?

The instructor has been fabulous, completely engaging and obviously well-versed in the science of healing and her own unique art form of caring. Plus I always love those down south (Georgia) accents/attitudes/idioms ('The dog won't hunt' ain't exactly a Brooklyn thing).

The flow of the course has been great. From concepts to practice as it should be and we finished off last night with a thrillingly entertaining workout session - the idea was to spread this out to our patients. I may just have to take a few more courses with these people :)

Last Post

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:27:00 +0000

http://www.NewProfessionalPT.blogspot.com

Brooklyn Half

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:02:00 +0000

Last Saturday I ran the farthest and fastest I have ever run in my life. Running a race is something I had been talking about for a long while, and boom here I finally decided to do it. I joined NYRR last year in hopes of getting into the NYC Marathon (which I would have trained for real hard), alas the lottery did not smile upon me, so perhaps this year I will try again. There are a number of ways to qualify for the NYC Mar. none of which I met, yet.

But I have been receiving e-mails from NYRR and saw one about the Brooklyn-Half Marathon and saw it was right in my neck of the woods, I just decided to sign up. Up to that point I had been running intermittently on top of my weight training, probably no more than 2 miles at a time. As a soon to be PT I would not have recommended that I run in this event without proper training. After signing up, I began to run with a little more zeal and got in a few 5-7 mile runs. I was able to recruit one of my old high school football buddies to run - Dan has been training to become a fireman and thus has been running a lot, (spoiler alert!) so it's o.k. that he beat me by 5 whole minutes. His goal was 1:45, mine was anywhere from 2-2:15.

The night before I did manage to carb load with a big bowl of whole wheat pasta. On race day I didn't even eat breakfast, but my fireman buddy hooked me up with half an orange and the ever-important band-aids over the nipples, crucial.

As the race began on the boardwalk of Coney Island I tried to keep pace with fireman Dan. Navigating through the thousands of runners at a decent pace was the second greatest challenge of the race (the first being fighting fatigue of course toward the end secondary to my lack of training). At mile 3 right as we got off the boardwalk I was starting to lose ground with my pace rabbit. First I yelled out for him to "slow down!" which he did not, to which I yelled out "I will catch you if it's the last thing I do," to which an older lady yelled back in quality Brooklyn fashion: "It probably will be."

The running route itself is set up very well; after the 3 miles on the boardwalk you begin a long straight away up the gut of Brooklyn. I ran by fireman Dan's brother and cousin to ask how far ahead he was and they told me only about a half block up, so I felt alright with that. It was fun because I was able to try to latch on to someone just ahead of me and try to catch them, have small races which kept me going throughout. A little kid yelled "It's Superman!" (I was wearing my Super PT shirt, seen in my blog profile to the right or below), which gave me an extra little boost. As I kept going I stopped at each water station and did walk a little to enjoy the gatorade, which slowed my pace a little I am sure; I was able to maintain an 8:00 pace for most of the race, however toward the end I slowed down and finished with an 8:26 pace.

As I got more and more tired my PT mind set kicked in a little and I started to think about each muscle movement. I felt my hip flexor, especially in my R leg getting tighter and tighter. I actually at one point did a little lateral shuffle in each direction and backpedal to try to clear the constant repetitive forward running motion, which just made sense at the time and did in fact make me feel a little better. As I pressed on getting passed by people of all sizes and experience levels I wished that I had trained a little more. there were some very short people and females passing me by, which can be a little embarrassing, but I did not mind because I know how much they must have trained while I relied on my natural athletic ability (I hope that doesn't sound too chauvinistic, haha).

It was passed on to me later that at about mile 10, entering THE PARK, a 3-year old child was yelling for everyone to STOP, and his mother said "No, sweetheart you want them to keep going." Quality moment.

I kept stopping at each water station to reflect while I enjoyed the cool refreshing drink, whereas my buddy Dan told me he did not stop for water once (possible 5 minute difference there). I began running alongside a good looking young lady whose name was Amy and works in fashion and was originally from Texas, she was running with a group of red shirts with a foot print on the back. She had fallen behind during the start by literally falling down before the starting line because of the mad rush of people on the boardwalk. As we ran and her pace pushed me she regaled me with her past running experiences, having run the NYC Marathon twice, once being sick and the other time injured and not training properly. That conversation lasted close to 1.5 miles, maybe even 2, until we got to that next dreaded water station where I felt the need to stop and walk with my water, despite my pride I told her to go on without me. I had a pleasant walk for close to 100 yards it felt down to the traffic light after the water station, trying to stay out of everyones way.

I felt rejuvenated as I got to the traffic light and took off for the finish line, hoping there would be no more water stations to distract me. There were some wicked hills in the park but I felt strongest going up hill. I ran by a few people on the floor from exhaustion, and yelled to the EMS there was someone puking about 100 yards back around the bend, but they did nothing, sad moment. As a former EMT and a medical volunteer for the last two NYC Marathons it was a shame how that EMS'r did not respond to me, but maybe he took off after I had continued running. I wish I could have stopped to help that poor gentleman on the floor but alas, I did not... I knew (or at least thought) he could better be taken care of by the volunteers on hand and I had to try to catch Dan.

Coming around one of the last bends at about mile 12.2 I saw one of my professors which gave me an added boost, always great seeing people you know along the path to glory... As I was coming up on mile 13 (the full distance is 13.1 miles - which slipped my buddy Dan, who sprinted to mile 13 but then was tired for the extra tenth of a mile) I too decided to sprint ahead (when I actually got to the 13 mile marker). At about 13.05 I felt my legs giving out from the sprinting that I had not prepared them properly for, but I sprinted on, yelling like a madman and bypassing everyone else just cruising into the finish line and that brings us to the picture below and the official scoring time was different from that displayed in the picture, mine was 1:50:30 which I am pleased with for my first ever race of that length. In fact the only other race I had ever run previously was a 5K turkey trot which I finished in 24 minutes and did on a complete whim with zero preparation.

Afterwards I had a few blisters only on my R foot which is going to require future investigation since I plan on continuing to train and run. I still have to give many amazing kudos to Stanley Paris for what he is attempting to accomplish. We did have a problem finding Dan's father after the race, so if you ever run one, make sure you work out an ideal meeting situation.

That's my recap, hope to see you out there running the next one with me!

Update

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:35:00 +0000

Got a few post ideas floating around, still trying to get settled back into a NY groove... for now enjoy this news story that goes right to the heart of "You got drugs, you got surgery, you got us":

Commonly Used Medications Associated With Impaired Physical Function In Older Adults

from ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

Older adults who take drugs designed to block the neurotransmitter acetylcholine -- including common medications for incontinence, high blood pressure and allergies -- are more likely to be dependent in one or more activities of daily living and to walk slower, according to new findings from researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues.

Of course this could have some impact on that:

One In Four Disabled Seniors Use Risky Or Ineffective Medicines, USA

from Rehabilitation News From Medical News Today

Roughly a quarter of Americans with disabilities age 65 and older reported using at least one prescription drug deemed inappropriate for persons his or her age, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Only about half as many (13 percent) of elderly people without disabilities used inappropriate drugs, according to the analysis of 2004 data. Thirty-three medications are regarded as inappropriate for people 65 and older.

Tumors

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:52:00 +0000

May 4-10 is brain tumor action week. Checkout this video I put together with the help of some of my brain tumor friends. Please pass this on to your contacts and ask them to pass it on to their contacts… and so on... Please help us spread awareness about brain tumors. People need to notice! All it costs you is a few minutes out of your day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRTQGYiQPJI

TUMORS SUCK! Pass it on!

--
Eric Anthony Galvez DPT CSCS
Author of REVERSAL
www.ericgalvezdpt.com
Executive Director of mAss Kickers LLC
www.masskickers.com
ericgalvezdpt@gmail.com

Aggressive Rehab for SCI

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:21:00 +0000

http://www.sci-therapies.info/Rehabilitation.htm

could be my laziest post yet... yay

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:03:00 +0000

This was an amazing experience to be a part of.

NY to Philly Bloggin'

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:06:00 +0000

Tomorrow begins my last week of clinical affiliation and boy am I excited. Even though I am very much just starting to get into a good groove here, it is time to move forward and culminate the 3 year doctorate program. Many choices as a New Professional: where to work, should I enter a residency program, what other areas will I spend my time on, how the heck will I pay back all these loans, are you gonna eat the rest of that? I will have about until the beginning of July to develop more definitive answers as that is when I take my licensure exam. One of my first ways to celebrate the end of this program will be to run the Brooklyn Half-Marathon with one of my high school football buddies, and I have to be honest in saying I have not prepared the way I should so I don't expect a record time, although since this is my first 'real' race it will be a record for me as long as I finish, which I am at least confident in that. And while this does not even come close to comparing to something like what Stanley Paris is doing (attempting to become the oldest person to swim the English channel - made more impressive by the fact he DOES NOT USE HIS ARMS), I think this run will help get me motivated for future athletic accomplishments. Gonna end here to avoid the chance of losing yet another post on my phone... have a great sunday!

Valid Effort from SA-APTA

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:14:00 +0000

How can we make things better? By asking questions... following e-mail received from the APTA Student Assembly President Nate Thomas... TAKE THE SURVEY IF YOU QUALIFY!:

Greetings from your Student Assembly Board of Directors.

On behalf of the Board of Directors and Nominating Committee, I want to invite you to participate in our Student Membership Survey. It has been developed by students… for students. Our hopes are that the data collected from this online survey will better enable us and the rest of the APTA to serve the unique needs and wants of our generation.

We encourage you to be open and insightful on all questions. Your responses will remain completely anonymous. We believe your honesty will be directly effective at setting the course for how we will operate in the future as a Student Board.

As important as each student member’s answers are, it is also just as crucial that we are able to distribute this survey to non-members in order to hear their issues and ideas for increasing APTA student membership. We are challenging all of you, as student members and appointed liaisons, to disseminate the link of this survey website to all of your classmates, especially non-members.

It is time that we unite our voices to be heard as students. You play an important role in making sure this happens. In a sense, “help us help you.”

Please recruit as many fellow students as you can to participate in this 10-15 minute survey.

The direct survey website is http://vovici.com/l.dll/JGs7261A5C8B5lKDx9U716581J.htm.

A survey link can also be found on the APTA student page at http://www.aptastudent.org. Simply direct students here and tell them to click on the survey logo. (You need not be a student to access the link.)

Thank you all for taking the time to help with this endeavor. Your efforts definitely will not go unnoticed. There truly has never been a better or more exciting time to be a physical therapy student. Let’s keep the momentum going!

Sincerely,
Nate Thomas
APTA Student Assembly President
aptasa_president@hotmail.com

Meat & Potatoes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 08:48:00 +0000

I have veered a little from the original intent of this site, which was to share my experiences as a student. It is often easier to simply share interesting news stories, and I plead guilty.

So as of this morning, I have two weeks left of any kind of actual school where I get graded for my performance. This is pretty darn exciting. I will have my doctorate within a month.

At this point of transition it is great to have options. The field is very open and jobs are available left and right all across the land. Which makes it that much easier for me to find an ideal setting. It is my desire at this time to apply for an orthopedic residency to continue my education while gaining "real-world" experience (whatever that is). More on the residency in a later post (when I get my stuff together for application).

So here is the time line:

Today is April 17
April 18 - Clinic
April 19 - Clinic
weekend will include baby showers and participation in a brain imaging study
week 10 of 11 will include my return to school on Wednesday for Discovery Day to present my case study on talar AVN - and take a practice board exam all the while organizing our graduation plans.
week 11 of 11 will include presenting my inservice presentation on neural regeneration after SCI.
the end of week 10 includes two scheduled discharges out of the five main patients I have been seeing, which is exciting. I will miss all the patients and staff...
May 2 - board review day and more grad prep at school
May 3 - Brooklyn Half-marathon and celebration of a college roommates upcoming wedding up in CT
Study for boards and coach some football until May 15th when I graduate!
May 16 - in a wedding
next 6 weeks will be interesting as I have more weddings and baby showers to attend all the while studying for the boards and making sure I am ready, because it takes about 6 weeks after graduation for everything to get processed to allow one to take the board exam to become licensed as a PT.
the residency I want to be a part of starts in January
Job possibilities as I mentioned are vast and I will have to balance them all out to find the best fit
At some point I have to figure out what to do with this blog since I wont be a student anymore (whimper)... perhaps a new professional blog is in order... yea that sounds right...

Health Tip of the Day - Pain in Side

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 03:10:00 +0000

The appendix is a tube-like organ, with no known purpose, attached to the large intestine. Appendicitis describes when the appendix becomes inflamed, making it prone to rupturing, which is a serious medical emergency.

You should seek medical attention at once if you have symptoms in the following list, provided by the U.S. National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse.

Abdominal pain, particularly pain that starts around the belly button and moves to the lower right side.
Lack of appetite.
Nausea or vomiting.
Diarrhea, constipation or difficulty passing gas.
Low fever that begins after other symptoms start.
Swelling in the abdomen.

Loans

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:07:00 +0000

Fewer options open to pay for costs of college.

Not a good sign for future students, so plan accordingly.
Other than those fortunate enough to receive scholarships, loans are generally the way of the PT student. It is an unfortunate issue that I don't even want to get too deep into, just read the link, get back to me, we can then discuss :-D

Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:55:00 +0000

Always fascinated by interdisciplinary issues, especially when they are shared... one such issue is apparently marketing.

Here the generalists find it to be a problem.

I won't even link to a specific EIM post, because this is always being brought up over there.

And DB's Medical Rants also covered a topic I wanted to get a little more into: balance.

Balance is such a difficult thing to achieve as DB referred to the balance of personal and professional life; there is also physiological balance which is generally the beginning of any class I have ever sat in regarding physiology: homeostasis. The balance of challenging a patient/client, not doing enough, and going too far or overtraining. The balance of being professional and friendly. Finding that balance is an amazing feeling, losing it stinks... being a student is great because I still have a few weeks to try to correct these balances... after that student status is gone hopefully what balance I have achieved will remain.

Links

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:31:00 +0000

New strength training advice for kids

Interesting post and comment about the relationship between nursing and PT in hospitals. Interdisciplinary care is an amazing aspect of health care that can certainly use a little more attention to bridge a number of gaps and make everyones jobs easier and ultimately improve patient outcomes!

More benefits shown for tart cherries... worth checking out because they are delicious.

Amazing anatomy tattoos.

Wheelchair skills program in Canada.

Exercise During Pregnancy Leads To A Healthier Heart In Moms- And Babies-to-be

Sugar-powered Cars: World's Most Efficient Method To Produce Hydrogen Developed

CPR Standards

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 15:56:00 +0000

As a former EMT and a proponent for everyone in the world being CPR certified, this recent article caught my attention. You may have even become certified in CPR or First Aid but the standards are beginning to shift more focus on the chest compression:

As described by Bobrow et al, MICR calls for an initial 200 uninterrupted chest compressions over two minutes, followed by a rhythm analysis and, if necessary, a single defibrillator shock, "immediately followed by 200 postshock chest compressions before any pulse check or rhythm reanalysis." Three sequences of 200 chest compressions are required before the victim can be intubated.

Learn CPR in 3 easy steps (the website on this link is not enough instruction, you should take the class to experience and practice the technique with trained professionals). It really is simple and should not be something you are overwhelmed with, and should be worth the investment to learn it as you can save the lives of your loved ones. Don't forget the AED certification too.

There are a number of organizations that offer this life saving instruction, but these 2 are the most reputable:

American Red Cross

Together We Prepare

American Heart Association

Addendum article

Drugs, Surgery, PT

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:45:00 +0000

In the continued debate between these three options for numerous diagnoses, here's a real basic article about drugs with some startling numbers, especially the amount of deaths caused by acetaminophen (1393 from 1998-2005). More and more keeps coming out, so keep on reading.

Physician shortage? Turn to PT's

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:56:00 +0000

Recently there has been much talk in the health blogosphere about the shortage of primary care physicians.

Is there a primary care crisis?

The trends from recent years largely held true in different specialties. Highly competitive programs such as plastic surgery and dermatology filled all of their slots, mostly with U.S. medical grads. Less competitive programs — largely those oriented toward primary care — relied more heavily on graduates of foreign programs and had some unfilled slots.

Unless the best and brightest physicians can master all possible diagnoses, and there are enough of them to cover all patients, you will always need to have some system of filtering and referral.

So if you want a guaranteed job go ahead and try to get into primary care... another option to help alleviate this problem in American health care is to start recognizing Physical Therapy as a qualified first line defense (direct access) for musculoskeletal issues, and recognizing the specialists within the field in their respective areas:

neurology
geriatrics
pediatrics
sports
orthopedics
cardiovascular/pulmonary
clinical electrophysiology
women's health

That referral system that will always need to be in place can (and is taught as such) that when red flags and yellow flags (precautions) are spotted, we as PT's will refer out to the appropriate specialty. PT's are now trained at a doctoral level, there are studies showing the cost-effectiveness of PT (read the comments too, well-summed up), and with the current healthcare crisis (and who knows what will happen in this election year), PT needs to be utilized to help improve the state of healthcare. That's where I stand.

And maybe even with the reduced load on physicians perhaps medical errors can be reduced.

Reimbursement 2

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:33:00 +0000

As a follow up to my recent post on reimbursement, there is a new story of insurance companies providing reimbursement for online consultations... interesting that we still have all these battles in PT even with Medicare enforcing a cap on therapy... here's a quote that captures the situation and frustrations pretty well from this interesting conversation:

"Here in New Jersey our state chapter of APTA has over a number of years attempted to reason with the insurance industry which has only resulted in further diminishment in reimbursement and loss of coverage as evidenced by arbitrary caps, sky rocketing co-pays and unreasonable and capricious visit limitations based solely on the need of insurers and their intermediaries to bolster their bottom lines."

When will health care and insurance companies come to their senses on what they should spend their money on. Hint hint: Skilled PT services :-D

Another Wii Bites The Dust

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:39:00 +0000

Dang it, another Wii article... problem is worth repeating: This is going to become attached to us...

Random person: oh, you are a PT, you have people play Wii to rehabilitate them, that's wonderful...

Not so much... why is it moments like this don't make news... PT is so much more than Wii, I should know based on the ridiculous amount of content I have to study for the licensure exam.

The new APTA marketing campaign can't come soon enough...

John Iams/CAM

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:13:00 +0000

I wanted to publicly respond to an e-mail I received inquiring about my opinion of John Iams.

Here is YouTube video of Mr. Iams discussing the changing times. Other than the circles in which he talks, the most befuddling part of the video starts at about 4 minutes and 22 seconds when he begins discussing evidence-based practice. The problem with guru's such as Mr. Iams and their theoretical models that are not based on any true scientific basis is they want to write off EBP or ignore it. Upon reviewing his website (PRRT) I can only say I was less impressed the more I saw. While we do live in a capitalistic society, the whole money-back guarantee on your magical product.
Here on his "blog", he addresses the EBP issue and claims that this technique is too new to have evidence and "it has been clinically proven to frequently reduce pain by 50% or more, even on the first visit."

While I am in this profession for the patient, and believe any form of pain relief that can be long lasting is worth going through all sorts of unusual treatments, I ultimately have to share in the opinions of the EIM team. Here is another post and comments on the issue worth taking a look at. The idea of CAM will certainly be one of interest in the years to come, which is why EBP is that much more important to continue to improve upon.

In other news:
More support for exercise... as if we really needed it...

Another Wii Story

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:23:00 +0000

The Wii story is in the last 3 or so minutes of this video. The most interesting part of that news piece for me was actually the USC PT introducing herself as Dr. (a whole 'nother bag of worms in PT). The Wii part of it is just another log on the fire that is the debate over "Wii-hab". The PT (and other health related) blogging community has a lot to say about it:

PT Rover

NPA Think Tank

MyPTSpace - EIM

Science to Life

Physio Info-blog - here is the journal article he is referring to.

Other Wii Articles:

Virtual gaming no replacement for real exercise!

Kevin MD - interesting comment on that one as to the OT vs. PT debate... I think we can certainly work together to be more productive, and I will leave it at that for now...

Speaking of OT - this OT student blog post has a Wii mention

A research team was able to extract rich information about a person's reaching movements while they performed a learning task using the Wii. Here is the actual journal article.

Use of Virtual Reality for burn victims.

Surgeons hone skills with Wii.

As a reminder I work with a Spinal Cord Injury population and we do in fact have a virtual reality room with Wii and an upper body ergometer that can be used to propel a virtual car and steer it left and right (although we had more problems with that one than actual play time). We also have recreational therapists on staff and most patients receive 2-30 minute sessions a week of recreational therapy, the TR's (because RT is reserved for respiratory therapist) also go on community outings along with the PT or OT. Through my observations the Wii along with dominoes, connect four and numerous other games are a large part of what the TR's work on.

Anyway, we have group activities every day as one of the three hours of therapy that all patients receive. I work with the action group which consists of patients that have a little more function than others, in particular almost all of our members can stand. We have a different topic every day and once every few Friday's we have "Fun Friday's" where we play some games (including the Wii). While we were playing we had the patients stand supported with a walker and a PT as needed. One particularly quiet patient was having a groggy day and in his complaints added: "he research has shown that the Wii helps people lose weight, I'm skinny, why am I doing this?"

There is a general image problem for PT in the public... how many people really know what we do? Now they start seeing news pieces with PT and the Wii... thats not why I spent 6 figures on 3 extra years of grad school and plan on doing an extra year long residency... PT is the neuromusculoskeletal specialists... we can do SOOOOO much to help peoples bodies feel better from SOOOOO many ailments, but the way PR has been working to date we are known for blackberry thumb, gardening tips, the Wii-hab craze and so much other niche areas that it is starting to get a little upsetting for someone like myself who has gone to schools to promote PT and physical activity to children. Oh brother...

Overall, I completely appreciate the psychological distraction the Wii can provide and the "break from the mundane" that some of the articles refer to (although, a better PT will never allow for a mundane routine). However, the Wii is very limiting in how much physical activity it allows and rarely is going to work on an area of weakness that translates into functional outcomes that are meaningful to a patient/client's activities of daily living. Speaking of which I am going for a run outside :-D

Wii Injury.com

Wii Have A Problem

Wii Injury Report

Reimbursement

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 01:15:00 +0000

I haven't gotten too much into the entire headache that is reimbursement. I got into PT to treat patients. I chose this profession over most other medical professions because we get to really be one on one. So when we have trouble getting paid by insurance companies for our hard work, it seems a little ridiculous that the latest CPT (insurance) codes for:
"The addition of codes for telephone and online evaluations reflect a reality anticipated in the Future of Family Medicine report - one in which "interactions will not be limited to traditional, individual, face-to-face encounters between the patient and the family physician."

Don't physicians spend too little time with their patients already?
Five minute consultation?

While I love technology and I can see some (albeit minimal) value of this type of "evaluation", face to face treatment is irreplaceable as is the laying on of hands.

Sidenote: Does drinking make for better academia? (Say it ain't so)

Quick Post - No PT...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 02:56:00 +0000

Interesting article about HGH... good to see Evidence-Based Medicine getting out there.

Video of me playing paintball this weekend, fun stuff, amazing editing:

Prevention of Diabetes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:25:00 +0000

"Diabetes care is a poster child for much of what’s wrong with our health-care system, which is good at handling acute crises but bad at preventing them." This is the opening quote of an article about employers in 10 U.S. cities agreeing to waive copays for employees’ diabetes meds, and to fund regular meetings between pharmacists and diabetic employees.

"A similar project in Asheville, N.C., a few years back suggested that employers save money in the long run, because improving diabetics’ health on the front end cuts the rate of expensive hospital procedures that are more common when diabetes is poorly controlled."

Maybe this is just a smart business move by pharamcists in response to recent slowdown of drug sales:
plenty of familiar reasons for the slowdown:

“loss of exclusivity of branded medicines,
fewer new product approvals,
the leveling of year-over-year growth from the Medicare Part D program,
and the impact of safety issues.”

I am thrilled anytime there is a move toward preventive (as opposed to preventative) care . However, in these studies funded by BigPharma, there is clearly no mention of another preventive measure that could be more cost-effective and more efficient in helping fight and control diabetes... a little thing we call exercise... and who is good at dealing with disease and exercise... a little group of people we call physical therapists...

In fact the American Diabetes Association webpage on how to prevent or delay diabetes mentions nutrition and exercise and yet nothing about drugs...

For the record: This is not intended to bash the pharmaceutical profession by any means, just sharing some candor on some interesting articles from today.

Here's another possibly positive story about health care with this great quote at the end:
“It begins with the assumptions that prescribing is one of the most useful and challenging things we doctors do, and that we doctors crave accessible, unbiased data about the drugs we prescribe. If war is too important to be left to the generals, then drug information is too important to be left primarily to the pharmaceutical industry.”

Speaking of exercise I am off to get a late night run in at my 24 hour gym... catch you cats on the flip side... go prevent something bad from happening to you!