Eric Robertson – Page 20

January 15, 2008

I've driven through Wayne, way too many times.

I finally caught up to my collection of feed items and news that I accumulated over the holidays. I’m glad I stuck it out and deliberately plodded through the piles of reading. Otherwise, I would have missed this ruling in Wayne, NJ against a doctor-owned surgical center. The 1989 Codey Act? Huh?

I guess charging fees for your surgical center is good business:

"Many of the physician-investors earned more money from [Wayne Surgical
Center’s] facility fees than they do from practicing medicine full-time"

Someone should have told these physician-investors to skip medical school and just go into real estate. It would have been cheaper.

By the way, the post title refers to the fact that everyone who hails from Sussex, NJ for any appreciable amount of time is forced to drive through Wayne, NJ more often than they ever thought possible.

ERIC

January 11, 2008

I'm afraid you run faster than I.

I posted on this topic a while back, but Oscar Pistorius was back in the news this week after a study suggested he may have an advantage in running over able limbed individuals.

“Interestingly, in the human ankle joint, the energy loss is much
higher in maximum speed sprinting,” he added. “This means the blade is
able to replace the whole kinetic chain of the human leg and the
prosthetics are much more efficient from a mechanical point of view.”

Brueggemann
said this did not necessarily translate to a general advantage. But he
did establish that this “different kind of locomotion” was also more
efficient from a physiological standpoint.

“In the 400 meters,
he was able to run at the same speed as the control subjects, but his
oxygen intake was much lower,” he said.

Hmmm. Seems like this one isn’t passing the all-important Common Sense Test. The guy has no feet! The spin on this article and the study results (no-I have not seen them) kind of speaks to the fact that they just might not want this poor fellow in the race.

Who were their control subjects by the way, as OP certainly is unique in history and as such, may not have a valid control. Good interactive graphics can be found here.

ERIC

January 9, 2008

How representative are blogs?

A previous post noted the fact that physicians outnumber physical therapists in their authorship of blogs. I wonder how representative blog writing is of general technology use by medical professionals. If we assumed maintaining a blog was something that technology savvy individuals tend to do, we could say that physical therapists are losing the technology race to physicians. Does this lag extend into maintaining electronic health records in clinical practice?

Although, its not too technical a thing to write a blog. Perhaps blog writing speaks more to patterns of web use. Why do PT’s remain so technophobic?

While we’re asking questions, the New York Times asks: "Does exercise really keep you healthy?"

Speaking of exercise, UBC Physio Info blog has something to say about the Nintendo Wii and exercise!

ERIC

January 5, 2008

Holiday is over, time for a resolution!

I must admit, I finished 2007 a little run down. Never fear, a voyage to my ancestral home has left me recharged and excited about the next few months. If I thought it couldn’t get any better, yesterday I inherited an archival history of manual therapy texts. Very cool. Thank you, DR!

I also gave a talk yesterday at the First Annual Physical Therapy Educators Workshop, sponsored by the DPT Consortium of GA. My topic was incorporating Web 2.0 concepts, namely syndicated content and collaborative software into teaching and personal learning. Here is a handout I offered to the audience with some highlights and resources.

A couple nights ago I was meeting with the Jessica King, who designs my blog and is working with the Evidence in Motion blog. She told me that subscribers to the two physical therapy blogs were numerous, but with one problem. Thousands subscribe via e-mail, less than 200 subscribe via the RSS feed. From the reader’s perspective, it should be the opposite. I wonder why this is so.

My resolution in 2008 is help figure out why. It will be to offer resources for therapists to get more involved in web conversations and, most of all, to encourage more physical therapists to begin blogging. There are hundreds, if not thousands of medical blogs penned by physicians, yet only a tiny few by PTs.

Consider this a call for physical therapists to become
blogger physical therapists. Maybe we could even get a new credential out of it? Take a look at the handout to get us started.

Eric Robertson, PT, DPT, CBPT (certified blogging physical therapist) Yeah, right!

December 21, 2007

Quadriplegia while seated at the office?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution highlights an interesting case of quadriplegia and a solid article on physical therapy. I think the article is referencing Intensive Movement Therapy (IMT), although it is difficult to read through the ‘every-man’ translation of what was actually being done.

I have one thought on IMT, regardless of whether this article is about that type of intervention or not. The above picture is reflective of most IMT treatments I’ve seen, with the physical therapist repetitively facilitating a gait pattern for long periods of time. My thought, is that the posture and disregard for body mechanics I often see is unfortunate for those therapists performing the chore. My bum knee would never tolerate providing that treatment!

ERIC

December 20, 2007

Debt Relief

Physical Therapists: Is there some debt relief in your future? The Physical Therapist Student Loan Repayment Eligibility Act (S 2485),
introduced Friday, Dec 14, includes PTs in the National Health Service
Corps Loan Repayment Program.

"As a result of the extensive education and clinical training required
to become a physical therapist, students often begin their careers with
significant levels of debt," said American Physical Therapy Association
(APTA) President R Scott Ward, PT, PhD.

ERIC

December 18, 2007

Wikipedia and PT

Wikipedia’s benefit lies in the collaborative nature of the knowledge within it. Check out the Wikipedia pages for Physical Therapy and Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapy.

In general, I find the Wikipedia pages on physical therapy to be poorly written and not very fluid or informative. So here is a project for the holidays: Sign up for a Wikipedia account and edit pages until your heart is content.
The editing syntax is very simple and the help feature is solid. This
is a simple, positive step we can take to solidify the branding of our
profession.

Still with a lot of energy? Create a Squidoo Lens. Here’s an example of a good one.

ERIC

December 14, 2007

Gender-Specific Manipulations?

A series of articles highlighting some anthropology research which explains why women don’t tip over when pregnant. Their study suggests that women have a slightly different wedge shape in their lumbar vertebrae, with a lordotic curve extending over 3 segments, not the two segments in males. So, I wonder if we should follow the lead of knee-replacement manufacturers and design a gender-specific manipulation for the female specific vertebrae? Perhaps, if manipulation was very specific…

ERIC

December 13, 2007

“Tot ziens en bedankt” (Farewell and thank you)

The latest edition of JMMT is up and marks the final issue that Dr. Peter Huijbregts will serve as Editor-in-Chief. As always, JMMT gets my nod for having full-text access to non-subscribers and an RSS feed for those fans of aggregation software.

The open-access material for this issue includes a case report by Borgerding et al describing the use of the patellar-pubic percussion test (http://jmmtonline.com/documents/v15n4/BorgerdingV15N4E.pdf) and a research paper by Tucker et al on the reliability and measurement error of a modified slump test (http://jmmtonline.com/documents/v15n4/TuckerV15N4E.pdf). Other free online content accessible at http://jmmtonline.com/current/ includes the editorial, book and multimedia reviews, a thesis review, letters to the editor, an obituary for Dr. Joe Keating Jr., and an author and subject index for volume 15.

I recommend Peter’s editorial, although it surely does not top the ‘Chiropractic Legal Challenges’ manifesto. He discusses a model of OMPT research, and includes a brief statement against "evidence-driven totalitarianism" in clinics as it pertains to utilization of research findings. I will miss eagerly anticipating the next editorial, and wish Peter all the best in his next adventure. "Tot ziens en bedankt." Likewise, I’m looking forward to the stewardship of new Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Chad Cook. Good Luck!

ERIC

December 13, 2007

Ted Corbitt Runs Into Another World

Corbitt1

"The father of long distance running" and physical therapist, Ted Corbitt, has died. Here is his obituary in the New York Times. In addition to his running legend, he also taught physical therapy at Columbia and NYU. He is known to have run more than 199 marathons and ultra marathons!

"Running is something you just do. You don’t need a goal. You don’t need
a race. You don’t need the hype of a so-called fitness craze. All you
need is a cheap pair of shoes and some time. The rest will follow.” Ted Corbitt, 1998