"Physical therapy is not a subspecialty of the medical profession and physical therapists are not medical doctors; we are a separate profession that provides a unique service that physicians are unable and untrained to provide."

Letter to the AMA from the APTA, Dec 2009

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Why We Have Brains

Neuroscientist Daniel Wopert suggests that human brains evolved for ONE REASON ONLY.

To control movement:

 

Not thinking, not reasoning, not tool-making.

Movement.

Dr. Wolpert's findings may have implications for physical therapists.

If our human brain needed to evolve in order to control movement, then restoration of movement may take priority over classic, medical approaches. The medical paradigm attempts to "cure" the patient or the pathology.

For example, spinal pain patients are often told that their bulging disc is the cause of their lower back pain. They may then be told that bending, lifting or twisting their back causes further disc bulging and pain. Their typical response is to further limit their activities, especially bending, lifting and twisting.

Perhaps movement therapy should begin before the "cure" or in place of the "cure".

Watch Dr. Wolpert's video and add your comments below this post. Thanks.

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Tim Richardson, PT owns a private practice at Medical Arts Rehabilitation, Inc in Palmetto, Florida. The clinic website is at MedicalArtsRehab.com.

Bulletproof Expert Systems: Clinical Decision Support for Physical Therapists in the Outpatient Setting is a manager's workbook with stories, checklists, charts, graphs, tables, and templates describing how you can use paper-based or computerized tools to improve your clinic's Medicare compliance, process adherence and patient outcomes.

Tim has implemented a computerized Clinical Decision Support (CDS) system in his clinic since 2006 that serves as a Reminder, Alerting, Prompting and Predicting CDS using evidence-based tests and measures.

Tim can be reached at
TimRichPT@BulletproofPT.com .

"Make Decisions like Doctors"


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