8 Essential Things Physical Therapists Need To Know For Managing MSK Disorders

Overview

This course is designed to help clinicians critically think about several aspects that may influence the recovery process of patients with musculoskeletal disorders.

Topics discussed include:

1. Factors that influence self-reported outcomes the most;
2. Why minimally clinically important difference scores (MCIDs) are a faulty construct;
3. Randomized controlled trials don’t tell you who benefits from a specific intervention;
4. Effect sizes, and why they are so low;
5. How and Why Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) influence health outcomes;
6. What patients want from their care;
7. What are the ingredients of value-based care;
8. Areas of physio that are primed for medicalization and overtreatment.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, participants will:

1. Recognize the factors that influence health-related outcomes in individuals with musculoskeletal disorders
2. Understand research design nuisances that can markedly influence outcomes
3. Synthesize the evidence on a number of areas of healthcare that are commonly misunderstood
4. Apply strategies to reduce medicalization and overtreatment in patients with musculoskeletal conditions

Speaker Bio: Professor Chad Cook 

Professor Chad Cook is a clinical researcher, physical therapist, and profession advocate with a history of clinical care excellence and service. His passions include refining and improving the patient examination process and validating tools used in day-to-day physical therapist practice.

He has authored or co-authored three textbooks, including the influential Orthopedic Physical Examination Tests: An Evidence-Based Approach, and has published over 280 peer-reviewed manuscripts, including approximately 50 studies on diagnostic accuracy. He lectures internationally on orthopedic examination and treatment and is currently the Director of Research Facilitation at the Department of Orthopaedics at Duke University.