Another Career Day at my High School

This past Saturday morning I went to talk to young men and women at my high school to give them an idea of what Physical Therapy is all about. My big messages at these events always include the following:

1) The story of how I got to my career
2) General overlook at the very dynamic field that is PT
3) This career may not be for you but make sure you find something you love to do. A great way to do this is to volunteer and intern with as many different fields that could be potential fits for you (I spent time with the following disciplines: chiropractor, orthopaedic surgeon, EMT, athletic training, personal training, physical and occupational therapy)
4) No matter what career path you choose you should still be aware of healthy living and how to save a life (this video is a scare tactic that should drive the point home)

A view of Brooklyn Tech's auditorium from the gym. The auditorium is the second largest in New York State (2nd only to Radio City Music Hall)

NYC Marathon

Such a great event. So much energy, brings the whole city and so much of the world together.

This will be the first year since 2005 that I will not be at the finish line medical tents. I will miss the environment, it is fun.

There are a few debates about what the marathon actually does to/for the body. An orthopaedic surgeon I heard speak recently advocated that no one over 150 pounds should ever run endurance events. Some of the healthiest people I know have run most of their lives. That debate will have to continue. In the meantime, good luck to all the runners tomorrow... Layer up!

Addendum:

I took this picture towards the end of the marathon (About mile 25.5). These guys dressed up like the Blues Brothers and walked right by me at a nice leisurely pace. Begs the question of people doing these marathons for fun. If you have a >5 hour time it seems to take away from the athletic accomplishment. The experience no matter what pace you go seems to be one of the best and I am highly motivated to push my surgically repaired knee to try this marathon next year.

National Student Conclave

Yesterday I had a chance to participate in a task panel at the National Student Conclave in Cherry Hill, NJ. The title of the Task Panel was: What You Can Expect As You Transition From Student To Professional Status: A New Professional Panel Discussion. We had a semi-diverse group including a PT only 1.5 years out of school who ha started his own practice in California. Another panelist took part in a PhD program in New Zealand investigating hip OA among other topics.

The students seemed to get a good amount of information out of the hour long discussion. While many of the same answers that could be expected were given about lifelong learning, the importance of mentorship, risk management, 'ethics in the real world' I had to get on my soapbox and make sure I advocated for involvement in APTA. My biggest take home message was how each of those students should not only be members but maintain active involvement in the organization. I believe this is the a major way we will grow as a profession. When asked about how the APTA has helped me as a New Professional I had to applaud the APTA again for all the work they do on Capitol Hill which we do not always see. I have been fortunate enough to see it firsthand as a member of the Student Board of Directors a few years ago and having a good friend currently working with APTA.

Great event, thank you again to APTA for inviting me to partake.

Guest Post: Interview w/Dr. Hewett RE:ACL

Hi, I would like to introduce myself, my name is Sasha Sibree. I’m a Physical Therapist in Denver, Colorado. BoDPT has kindly allowed me to do a guest blog post, I would like to thank him for the opportunity.

Basically I wanted a way to combine two of my interests – building web sites and furthering my Physical Therapy knowledge.

So what I did was go out and interview a whole bunch of rehab experts, and then make those interviews available, free of charge, on my web site PhysicalTherapyContinuingEducation.Org.

Here are some excerpt from a recent interview with Dr Timothy Hewett about his work with ACL Injuries and Prevention.

PhysicalTherapyContinuingEducation.Org: Is there a different mechanism, when comparing males and females, in non contact ACL injuries?

Dr Timothy Hewett: So, what we’ve done is we’ve looked at the mechanisms of how men and women tear their ACLs. Basically, if you look at the mechanisms, in women especially, there are four common components.

As the woman lands her knee buckles inward. The knee is relatively straight when she lands. Most if not all of her weight is on a single foot or single leg. And her trunk tends to be tilted laterally. In other words, her center of mass is outside of her foot base of support.

These mechanisms also occur in men but, for instance, the exaggeration of the positioning of the trunk is much greater in women than men. We’ve published several studies on this. We published last year, in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, a study showing the relationship in women between the amount of trunk lean and the risk of ACL tear.

I’ve also done collaborations with the biomechanics lab at Yale where we’ve showed in varsity athletes, women who are not good at sensing the position of their trunk in three-dimensional space, or allow greater motion of their trunk following a perturbation or disturbance of their trunk, have greater risk of future knee ligament and ACL tears.


Dr Hewett shares a ton of great information in this 46 minute interview. Including expanding on the four different components, the best way to screen for thttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhe “at risk” athlete, and what interventions can decrease their risk.

I invite you to visit my site at Physical Therapy Continuing Education.Org to listen to or download the entire interview.

Thanking you,
Sasha Sibree PT
Physical Therapy Continuing Education.Org

Pass It On

I usually do not pass along, let alone even read, chain letters, however this one caught my eye and I certainly do agree with the need to change our culture...



Pictured is a young physician by the name of Dr. Roger Starner Jones. His short two-paragraph letter to the White House accurately puts the blame on a "Culture Crisis" instead of a "Health Care Crisis"..

It's worth a quick read:


Dear Mr. President:
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.


While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one pack of cigarettes every day, eats only at fast-food take-outs, and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer. And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture" a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me". Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.

Respectfully,
ROGER STARNER JONES, MD
If you agree...pass it on.

Anybody home?

If you are still following this blog, bless you... and my apologies!
I am finally settling down from some whirlwind changes.
Finished my 18 month orthopaedic outpatient mentorship.
Took a position at Lenox Hill Hospital working Acute Inpatient Ortho (mostly).
Been busy with seeing a few private clients, working at the hospital and working out.
Started CrossFit (got certified as a trainer)... it is not as crazy as it may seem to some, we will discuss now that I am back.
Signed up for the OCS exam which will get its own post just to mentally prepare for preparing. Trying to do as much as I can. Took a few courses, about to take some more. Exciting times and time management is now the biggest challenge. Bottom line is I love the possibilities and there is a lot going on. I feel like this blogging, despite taking up time will help keep me somewhat grounded to move forward.

It helps that I finally got a brand new laptop... even the HTC EVO could not get me blogging consistently. here we go now...

APTA loan forgiveness survey

From my buddy Nate,

I wanted to call to your attention an email you may have received earlier today from us at APTA regarding student loan forgiveness. It went to all current PT students and all recent PT graduates that have been out for 5 years or less. Can you guys help to spread the word about this email and get students and new professionals to fill out the quick survey (it literally takes less than one minute to complete!). We don’t want people forwarding the email or copying-and-pasting the link, but rather filling it out from the email that they directly received. If you could just spread the word among your new professional and student colleagues to take a minute to fill it out, that would be amazing. The data that is gathered has the potential to be very helpful in our quest for student loan forgiveness opportunities for PTs.

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