Evidence Based Rehab

I thought I would share some resources on how to find a Physical Therapist in your area. The yellow pages is an Ok place to start. Asking a friend or you primary care provider whom they'd recommend is another option. For those that can't or don't want to use these options, there are a few tools on the internet that will help you:

• Find a Physical Therapist - A search engine provided by the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). It lists physical therapists via a specific radius from a given zip code. You can also filter by specialty (orthopaedics, geriatrics, etc). Limited as only members of the APTA are listed - but...would you want a PT that doesn't participate in their professional organization anyways?
• Find a Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapist - The American Academy of Orthopaedic and Manual Physical Therapists (AAOMPT) provides a tool to find physical therapists that have advanced training, via a fellowship, in orthopeadic manual therapy. While all PT's use manual therapy in some form, these PT's have demonstrated advanced skill and knowledge with it's use.

Good luck with your search!

Jason L. Harris

Labels: Direct access, how to find, physical therapist, physical therapy, search

I

received a nice email today from the president of the APTA, John Barnes. For outsiders, many of us in this profession feel we have an identity crisis in terms of how the public views us. We've had some off center PR campaigns such as "Blackberry thumb", "Couch Potato Exercises", and blah, blah. A grass roots effort has followed demanding more and better from our professional organization, and John Barnes seems to have stepped up to the plate. The most recent action is the hiring of a VP of communications for the APTA. Here is the email I received:

As a signatory of the public relations petition that was forwarded to APTA earlier this year, I thought you would be interested to hear about an exciting announcement.

I am pleased to let you know that we have hired Felicity Clancy as the new Vice President, Communications. Felicity starts at APTA on Monday, April 7.

Felicity is currently the Vice President of Communications and Marketing at the American Chiropractic Association. She has held that position since 2001 and has been with the ACA since 1990.

Before that Felicity worked for Express Newspapers in Gaithersburg, MD and at WJAC-TV News in Johnstown, PA.

Felicity is a graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania where she earned a BA in Journalism. She also holds a Master of Public Administration from George Mason University.

She is a member of the American Society of Association Executives and the Society of National Association Publications. She is also a member of the Metropolitan Chorus in Arlington, VA.

Felicity resides with her husband and two daughters in Falls Church, Virginia.

Please join me in welcoming Felicity to APTA!!!...

Her background working for the ACA could be a good thing. As long as we don't find ourselves pushing parents to bring in their children for health and wellness like so many DC's in my area.

At least they have direct access. Good luck Felicity.

Labels: APTA, evidence based medicine, legislation, public relations

Wow, I thought I'd found a candidate I could back. Not what am I going to do? I know this is not physical therapy related, but it is a prominent figure backing pseudoscience over evidence based medicine.

Here is McCain's statement from The Wall Street Journals Health Blog:

Going against the opinion of America’s top public health agencies, John McCain has suggested that autism may be linked to thimerosal, a preservative containing mercury that used to be common in children’s vaccines.

“It’s indisputable that autism is on the rise among children,” McCain (pictured) reportedly said while campaigning recently in Texas. “The question is, What’s causing it? And we go back and forth, and there’s strong evidence that indicates that it’s got to do with a preservative in vaccines.”

This despite every credible expert/scientist/clinical study that shows the opposite: NO LINK BETWEEN AUTISM AND THIMEROSAL

Jason L. Harris

Labels: Autism, EBM, evidence based medicine, Healthcare, McCain, Vaccine