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Physical Therapists and Fantasy Sports

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Physical Therapists have always been closely associated with the rehabilitation of professional athletes.  Even today, the Google news feed is littered with references to A-Rod and the physical therapist he plans to meet.  The stakes are pretty high when a sports team entrusts you with the health of their $275 million investment!  It’s nice to think of the impact physical therapists have on sports, even if it is in a behind-the-scenes role.

As a fantasy football fan, I regularly use my own knowledge to make judgments about player injury status.  I think it gives me an edge.  I stumbled across this blog by Chris Neault, who ties his love of baseball and PT background to offer fantasy baseball advice.

Of course the reigning queen of fantasy sports physical therapists is Stephania Bell, whose platform on ESPN is just awesome.  She offers her PT injury analysis skills to the world of sports, from the world leader in sports.

It’s impressive to witness a physical therapists actively engaging and contributing to our nation’s sporting health on the national scene. Their expertise not only aids athletes in recovering from injuries but also enhances their overall performance and well-being. A sports masseuse also provide therapeutic massages that helps relieve muscle tension, improve circulation, and promote relaxation to athletes. By working closely with individual athletes, these professionals play a vital part in preventing injuries, and ensuring that they are in peak condition to compete at the highest levels.

While their crucial role in rehabilitating thousands of amateur and youth sporting injuries often goes unnoticed, it’s just as noteworthy as handling high-profile cases like A-Rod’s quad strain. Moreover, obtaining a sport specific training certification could further enhance their ability to address the unique needs of athletes at all levels.

I’m motivated to quote the APTA poster hanging in my office,

“Attention, all weekend warriors.  We’ll (physical therapists) be in bright and early Monday morning to treat your back pain.”

ERIC

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Marketing The Profession?

If any readers of this blog do not read the Evidence in Motion blog, go read this post for some thoughts on how to, and how not to market the profession.

My two-cents can be illustrated in two additional links.

The first, at BEAPT.ORG, is the video embedded below. 

Obviously, this is an APTA marketing video designed to attract people into the profession.  While I admit I skimmed through some of it (10 min was just a bit too long), I was careful to look for anything that remotely resembled a PT treating low back pain.  I did find it at about the 5th minute for 10 seconds or so, without being specifically mentioned.  I don’t know why I thought it would be.  We never treat low back pain, and most physical therapists are not employed in outpatient orthopaedic settings, right?

The second example is a little more on target.  It is an opinion letter written by APTA President, Scott Ward on the USA Today website.  In the piece he mentions high-value issues for our profession and, in plain language, promotes the physical therapists.  This is good grass-roots marketing, though perhaps one without great reach.

ERIC

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Some Surgeons Can't Access Physical Therapists

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At least one group of surgeons is fighting to increase access to physical therapists.  The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) has gotten a bill sponsored:  the "Medicare Oral Health Rehabilitative Enhancement Act of 2008" (H.R. 5590).

Currently, Medicare rules prohibit referrals to physical therapists from dentists.  It seems strange to me that Medicare would allow these fellows to operate on someone, without simultaneously providing them with the ability to rehabilitate their own patients.  I wonder which groups, if any, actually oppose this bill.

Oddly, I couldn’t find this bill on the APTA Legislative Action Center website.  But, you can always write your congressman and urge them to support the bill! 

ERIC

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Get Strong, Interact

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I found this handy collection of strength training videos from the Mayo Clinic. Browsing through the videos, I thought they were well done and can help you answer questions like, "Does the bar go in front or behind your head when doing lat pull-downs."

I would love for someone to point me to such a nice collection of Physical Therapy videos.  Perhaps we can make one together?!

Some NPA Think Tank Interactivity

just installed a new tool called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of things that I think are cool.  In a flash, you can see if its cool enough to go visit. [Update:  Discontinued by popular demand!]

Should you decide Snap Shots is annoying, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

I also added a little Share This icon in the post footer.  This little trickster enables you to easily share my posts with your favorite social media site, or to e-mail good content right from my blog.

Enjoy!

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Taking the Hard Road

In my life I’ve always held to the mantra that in academics, the easy road is often the wrong one.  I’ve used this thought to drive me through most of my education, especially those times when I was taking extra courses and auditing classes just to cram in as much learning as I could. 

I was inspired and reminded of this approach by Seth Godin’s latest blog post, "Getting vs. Taking," where he writes:

"A few people, not many, but a few, take. They take the best education
they can get, pushing teachers for more, finding things to do,
exploring non-defined niches. They take more courses than the minimum,
they invent new projects and they show up with questions."

The same principle applies not just to students, but for patients as well.  Those patients who enact a truly remarkable recovery have usually gone and taken it, not waited for it to occur. 

I wonder how that can be captured as part of a research study…

Here is a link to an old post I wrote where I considered the pace of work.  [Google’s Frantic Pace]

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Stanley Swims, Floats Research

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Stanley Paris, swimmer extraordinaire, is undertaking an attempt to become the oldest person ever to swim the English Channel at the tender age of 70.  Details of the swim and his training can be found on his blog, Paris on La Manche.  You’ve just got to love the swimming cap!

Dr. Paris is swimming in support of the Foundation for Physical Therapy, and so by donating some $$ you can help further research efforts for the profession.  [Link via APTA]

Paris, the founder of the University of St. Augustine, one of the founding members of AAOMPT, expert functional anatomist and physical therapist can hopefully add this new feat to his long list of interesting and notable accomplishments.

Good Luck, Stanley Paris!

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Physical Therapist 2.0?

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Since I first became aware of Jay Parkinson several months ago, I’ve been trying to reconcile his business model for the delivery of health care with physical therapist practice.

Jay Parkinson, a Brooklyn-based physician, has a nifty web-site which explains his novel model of health care delivery.  Parkinson basically delivers distance-based health care through internet technologies.  For $500 per year, Parkinson can be signed up as your physician (if you live in Brooklyn) and for that fee, you get almost unlimited chat/e-mail/text/video chat contact, and a couple visits in person.  These "e-visits" can take place at your home, your work, your favorite coffee shop, etc.  Parkinson is trying to blend the concept of the very personal family physician of yesteryear characterized by house calls and  personalized contact with today’s massive tech-based communication methods.  The Health Care Blog sums up the model well,

"Jay is not trying to serve the mass institutionalized health care
system, he is trying to service a niche group of young, urban
professionals who for whatever (or for obvious) reasons have opted out
of the medico-industrial complex."

Several important things combine to make this model work.  His patients are self-selected, tech savvy, most likely proactive in their wellness.  They are located in an area which makes travel between patient visits inexpensive.  Parkinson is limiting his practice in terms of numbers (although the economics of $500 x 1000 patients is not too limiting!) to maintain his "personal" touch.  An finally, he has removed his service from the practice-dictating effects of third-party payers. 

Is there a place in physical therapist practice for this very innovative model of care?  In fact, I think there is.  The majority of aches and pains that impact people each day are musculoskeletal in nature.  Each day, I employ parts of my skill set upon my own body to keep in running the right way.  Perhaps others could benefit from that tweaking and tuning as well.  Evidence supports both the massive cost mismanagement of musculoskeletal dysfunction and the importance of early physical therapist access in helping to prevent the development of chronic dysfunction. 

Direct Access to physical therapist services helps enable the implementation of this model, but a profession-wide branding problem might make it difficult to market.  The niche of patients that can maximally benefit from an e-visit needs to be explored.  Yet, from my eyes, this model is very consistent with APTA Vision 2020 and promotes the "PT for Life" concept.  It would take the right market, but Parkinson is on to something that physical therapists should take note of.

ERIC

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Even "Grim" Medicare Outlook is Unreal

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Two weeks ago, I sat in an audience listening to Mike Leavitt, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, as he suggested an upcoming report would reduce the time until the Medicare trust fund goes bankrupt.  But a report released this week left the 2019 estimated doomsday date unchanged.  I wonder why the disconnect?

Perhaps, Mr. Leavitt understands the absurdity of the following assumption:

"But the report, prepared by government actuaries and economists, said
these projections were unrealistic because they assumed that Medicare
payments to doctors would be cut by more than 10 percent in July and by
an additional 5 percent in January 2009 and in each of the next seven
years, for a cumulative reduction of about 40 percent." [via NYT]

By the way, I’m all about Mr. Leavitt’s Value-Driven Health Care Concept.

[Update: Mike Leavitt is a blogger!]

ERIC

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Code Green, 5th Floor! Patient out of Credit!

EkgMy favorite morning news program mentioned today that American’s are spending a record level of their discretionary income on food, fuel, and medical bills.  The current economic woes coupled with the ever-rising health care costs remind me of Healthcare Analytics, the new corporation dedicated to developing the next vital sign:  Health Care Credit Scores.

Perhaps the most ominous quote from that article was by a south Florida hospital administrator who stated, "You want to concentrate on the ones that have the ability to pay."

Of course, she was referencing collection efforts, but I can’t help but wonder.  Perhaps we need a new model of delivery, not a better way to get payments.

ERIC