Vertebroplasty Controversy

A few patients brought this to my attention and I saw this very insightful blog post on the topic. Here is the NYTimes article about it also.

Arthritis is one of the toughest diagnoses to deal with and to combine it with low back pain (another of the more difficult to manage) and you have a recipe for some controversy. Surgery, especially for the back, will be very interesting to follow as the technology changes so constantly and the current methods seem to be less than ideal. My solution... start young, exercise wisely and avoid back problems... easier said than done, eh? Naive? Maybe, but it is the best "treatment" we have at this time. This leads very neatly into my next project of beginning an injury prevention program for high school athletes here in NYC, stay tuned or contact me if interested in participating.

Have a healthy day!

Health Care Crisis

Is this really what passes for fitness nowadays? 6 minutes a day is going to fix it all... No wonder we have a crisis, fix things congress, please...

SmartPhone Results

Here are the results to the previous/recent survey I linked to. Interesting stuff, but now I am more confused as to which phone I want to get next. My current phone, the Treo 755p, is becoming obsolete and breaking down fairly rapidly. I think it would be awesome if we could do all of our documentation on a handheld device like the iPhone or Palm Pre. The Palm Pre offers multitasking which can be great if you can pull up a patients x-rays and input data into their medical record. I want to switch to the Palm Pre as my Treo breaks down but they are charging 500+ dollars, even though I have been with Sprint for almost 4 years they cant give me any price break on the phone, while new customers get it for $199... pissing me off a lot of bit. Have to weigh out cost of the plan, quality of the phones, etc. A lot going on... enjoy the survey results, hopefully I can be mobile blogging much more efficiently with a new phone :)
Have an awesome day!

Different Feet

Reading through a running magazine I saw an advertisement for these shoes that allow for more custom fit than most shoes offer. Check out the fitting video here.

I recently took a Vasyli course about biomechanics of the foot which was very useful. Brian Hoke is an excellent speaker, very engaging and insightful. I highly recommend any course he presents. There is still much reflection and further analysis that I need to do to best implement the information into my clinical practice. Are orthotics more a crutch or a tool for the foot? There seems to be those who believe they can ease everything up the kinetic chain including back pain while others say we can fix the issues with exercise, stretching and some manual therapy. This is the beauty of being a New Professional; learning is a lifelong process, and I am excited for the opportunities that lay ahead.