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In this section, feature-length articles bring you up close to common and rare clinical areas. With a focus on disease states, workers' compensation, disease management, long-term care and more, these resources will broaden your clinical base and enhance your delivery of care. Begin with the topical articles below, or start by exploring the five clinical categories to the left.
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Disease Management
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Written by Richard Scott
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Friday, 26 February 2010 15:51 |
 How Exercise Prevents, Treats Osteoporosis
It may seem counterintuitive to think that someone with brittle bones could prosper from exercise. The fear of fracture or a worsening of the condition may prevent those with osteoporosis from engaging in physical activity. But the latest research shows that, on the contrary, exercise can reap huge benefits for someone with osteoporosis by strengthening the bone structure and, if done accordingly, decreasing the risk of fractures and disease progression.
Osteoporosis is a bone-decimating disease that predominantly affects women, including four out of five of the 10 million U.S. adults over 50 who are diagnosed with the condition. According to data from the National Institutes of Health, one in two women over 50 will experience a fracture related to osteoporosis in her lifetime. As the perception of the bone disease has changed from an unavoidable deterioration of bones due to age to a preventable occurrence largely predicated on lifestyle choices, exercise has been recognized as a central preventive strategy. Bone is a living organism, and exercise—weight-bearing exercise in particular—helps develop bone mass until a person’s late twenties, when growth of new bone naturally begins to stabilize or decrease. By middle age, both men and women experience a decline in bone mass, and women specifically see a sharp decline in the years following menopause. But as the medical community now acknowledges, that declines is far from the static, inevitable progression so often perceived.
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Catastrophic
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Written by Patti Vancil, RN, BSN
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Friday, 26 February 2010 15:42 |
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 “Walk like what?” Elaine asked. “Tell him to walk like a penguin!” I responded. “Tell him to keep his center of gravity low and use his arms as stabilizers.” Once again, Elaine had called to tell me that my father had fallen. With each call she would explain how he fell and how they managed to get him up off the floor. These calls have become part of our everyday life.
If you were to use any fall risk assessment tool for my dad you would quickly realize he needs an adult-sized baby walker, and for quick identification purposes he should be entirely encased in yellow. (Locally, yellow is the color which signifies a patient who is at risk of falling.)
Fall risk assessment tools are widely implemented in every hospital and nursing home across the country. They tell us how likely a person is to fall while in our care. What they don’t tell us is how stubborn a person can be or how willing (or unwilling) the person is to achieve compliance.
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Workers' Compensation
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Written by Matt Knutson, PT
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Friday, 26 February 2010 15:28 |
 Achieving Value-Based Physical Therapy
If you help manage the health care of employees, there are three words you may have come to know that leave you feeling anxious … chronic, repetitive, stress. Many musculoskeletal diagnoses may be related to chronic repetitive stress, such as tennis elbow, plantar fasciitis, anterior knee pain, trochanteric bursitis, temporomandibular joint dysfunction; and two very common diagnoses, often related to work, include carpal tunnel syndrome and rotator cuff strain. As with any physical injury, ailment or disease, the rehabilitation process can be simple and, at other times, very complex.
When you think of chronic repetitive stress, do you visualize an overtreated musculoskeletal problem, costly for the employer, draining for the patient, and enduring for you? Have you ever seen a physical therapy referral requesting continuation at three times per week for six to eight weeks, following an excessive number of visits without evidence of progress? Have you ever wondered if physical therapy would ever end? Or why the patient would continue in the absence of progress? Do you find yourself feeling as though you have no authority to improve the situation, simply because it is directed by a medical doctor? If so, you will be pleased to know that this type of physical therapy is not to be considered standard care. This article brings hope for better results.
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