CSM Recap

I have returned from the Combined Sections Meeting of the American Physical Therapy Association in Las Vegas. It was great. I was privileged to give two presentations. The first was on using the Wii and other technologies in Physical Therapy. It was very popular as there were 200 in the room and I was told at least 200 were turned away (quite unhappily). I have been very amused at the therapists who belittle the use of Wii in therapy claiming that it is not 'evidence based.' These people have such a limited view on the world and do not get it. No one is claiming that we should have our patients only use the Wii and do nothing else for physical therapy. It is a piece of therapy just like joint manipulation is a piece of a thorough treatment plan. If we can use the Wii to promote doing exercise or to increase participation or to take notice or to increase balance or to improve movement patterns or to have fun while doing good things for our movement then the Wii is a good thing and should be used as an aspect of our treatment.

The other presentation I gave was about some research that Justin Tepen, DPT (a former student) and I did on vocabulary use. I was very happy at the amount of times I heard different presenters talk about the need for standardized vocabularies regardless of their topic. Physical Therapists need to understand how important vocabulary is especially in light of the $20 billion information technology monies from the newly passed stimulus package. If we are do not get our act together we will not see much of that money headed our way nor will we be very successful with Electronic Health Records that are starting to emerge.