Today, hundreds of physical therapists, members of the APTA’s Othopaedic section, and members of AAOMPT, are spending the day on Capitol Hill meeting with as many legislators as we can.
In today’s rapidly changing healthcare arena, the timing of this event couldn’t be better. Providing input from the physical therapist’s perspective is important as so many decisions are about to be made. The day has started out well, with some excellent breakfast at the Russell Senate Office Building. Present were the leadership of representative organizations. Left to right: Jay Irrgang (APTA-Orthopaedic section) Scott Ward (APTA) and Bob Rowe (AAOMPT).
I get asked by quite a few physical therapists about the best way to establish some sort of online identity for themselves or, more often, their business. While my gut reaction is to suggest a WordPress, this does take at least some footwork to get off the ground and to look nice. Another option which, due to the insanely simple process of setting it up, maybe more palatable to some folks is Posterous.com
Posterous allows everyone to make a blog on the fly, and they take care of images, hosting, posting, etc. All the user has to do is to remember the email address to post something (post.posterous.com), find something of value on the web worth sharing, or write down some thoughts, and click send. That’s it!
This article by Guy Kawasaki does a great job explaining how one can use Posterous to it’s full potential, including simultaneously posting to several social media sites and blogs.
How about we start blogging again here at NPA Think Tank! I’m off to my favorite conference of the year, the Annual Conference of The American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists.
I’ll be presenting on physical therapy in the evolving healthcare landscape. For now, here is my current landscape, the clouds over Atlanta.
This is the video of the day! Chad Garvey spends some time talking with the media about interventions for neck pain. What do you think about the close to this news piece? Nice job, Chad!
General apologies and regrets for the long delay between posts. One of the things I was up to was presenting at the annual APTA Conference in Baltimore with Tim Noteboom. I thought it might be nice to direct all those folks who I coerced into subscribing to my blog by way of a how-to demo to the slides from the presentation.
I’m not sure this was designed to be just a back pain hotline, but Intermountain Healthcare ran a unique outreach program and put consumers in touch with Physical Therapists via hotline. Anyone with questions could call in and speak to an expert. Very nice, and deserving of this piece of good press.
Jake Magel was featured in the article which discussed the conservative management of back pain:
“If people get proper care up front, they tend to use less health care in the years following,” he said. “They visit physicians less, take fewer medications and miss less days at work.”
By the way, Jake Magel is the lead faculty for my virtual rounds course in the EIM Fellowship program in addition to his role as the director of the Intermountain Orthopedic and Spine Therapy Clinic at Intermountain Medical Center. Go, Jake!
Watch CBS Videos Online (Btw, it’s too bad there’s a 30 sec ad at the front end of this video. Bad CBS!)
Last night’s 60 Minutes program aired a piece highlighting the amazing work being done in the U.S. Department of Defense to revolutionize prosthetics. The segment featured the DEKA Arm, developed by everyone’s favorite Segway inventor, Dean Kamen. He’s had some success making transportation so simple a chimp could use it! So, I was looking forward to seeing what his nimble mind could come up with.
The DEKA Arm
Dean’s DEKA Arm is being developed as part of the DoD”s DARPA Program, which is a very cool website to go explore. There are seemingly programs for everything futuristic you could imagine! This specific program comes from the Defense Sciences Office, in the Revolutionizing Prosthestics Project. The DEKA Arm allows users to pick up such delicate items as a grape, yet still be strong enough to power a drill. Even the interface with the residual lmb has been re-designed and is presumably superior.
The key point to these new prosthetics is the interface between the highly powerful processors living inside lightweight, high-tech materials and the human’s neural system.The DEKA Arm looks like it could be a big breakthrough in technology that’s previously been out of reach. The wrist alone contains 3 PC’s worth of processing power! I’m proud of the DoD for their efforts on this project.
The most interesting quote from the 60 Minutes program was this:
“I’m not really learning [to use the prosthetic arm] as much as the computer is.”
Wow! I’ve been searching all morning for rehabilitation programs that combine biotechnology and physical therapy degrees. No luck so far.
The Biotechnology PT
I think the Biotechnology Physical Therapist is coming soon to a clinic near you. I’m curious to see how technologies such as this will alter the landscape of traditional rehabilitation. This is a bit more specialized than strapping on a prosthetic device that was designed in 1940, even if the fundamentals of movement are the same. Modern rehabilitative specialists will need to understand and be able to affect sophisticated neural interfaces and computerized devices. Imagine that instead of strengthening a hip muscle, I only need to alter the output on processor #3-C to invoke the gait pattern I desire for the patient!
And people wonder why I spend so much time investigating every new technology I discover. Neural interfaces, stem cells, genetic scaffolds are technologies that are here already. I’m excited to see what the future brings!
Last week, the WSJ Health Blog was abuzz about announcements by a group of high-powered companies entering the home care market. GE, Intel, Google, IBM, Microsoft have all recently entered the home-health monitoring arena. This is serious stuff for telehealth initiatives, and one can only assume that the introduction of corporate backing into an arena that’s been here-to-fore largely neglected will have some significant impact. Check out these links for more information on this subject.
Do you think these companies are serious about this initiative? Check out this quote from Intel President and CEO, Paul Otellini:
“Most of the healthcare discussions today focus on the integration of more technology into traditional healthcare settings. While those investments are necessary and will create a more efficient healthcare system, it is not sufficient to meet the growing needs that are about to impact a system that is already at a saturation point. The GE and Intel partnership will not only help seniors and the chronically ill, but will also take a giant step forward in changing how healthcare is delivered.”
The current health system is in trouble. It may be that a big part of the fix will be by companies who are outside of the traditional health system, who see entrepreneurial opportunities to offer reform. Let’s hope so, because the physician-controlled model that we’ve been operating under doesn’t seem too eager to change.
Telerehabilitation?
So how does this impact physical therapy? There’s been an increasing presence in the body of scientific literature from a rehabilitative perspective, some articles even coining the term, “telerehabilitation.” However, most of these initiatives don’t mention physical therapy, focusing more on medical management of patients. Some state practice acts even have barriers in place that might prohibit physical therapists from performing off-site healthcare delivery. The physical therapy profession needs to be open and ready for these changes, and eager and capable of embracing the technological advances that will be part of a new model of healthcare. We also need to be better connected to these corporate initiatives. We might even need an iPhone app, as Selena Horner pointed out on the EIM blog.
By the way, last week I attended a talk on technical writing at the Refresh Augusta meeting. Part of that talk focused on localization of language, or making your writing appeal to different groups of people. One strategy offered by the speaker was to always use the first definition of a word, and avoid common slang. Well, as part of my research for this post, I’ve discovered a very terrible example of what can happen when these rules are not followed. Check out this image!
I get asked by quite a few physical therapists about the best way to establish some sort of online identity for themselves or, more often, their business. While my gut reaction is to suggest a WordPress, this does take at least some footwork to get off the ground and to look nice. Another option which, due to the insanely simple process of setting it up, maybe more palatable to some folks is Posterous.com
Dean’s DEKA Arm is being developed as part of the DoD”s 