Arthritis Hampers Millions on the Job

Arthritis limits work for nearly 7 million U.S. adults.  That's about 30% of people with arthritis who are 18-64 years old (Theis, K. Arthritis & Rheumatism, April 15, 2007; vol 57: pp 355-363)

While there are significant limitations to the study, there is no question painful arthritic conditions affect a great number of people on a daily basis.  The question is, what can be done to help these folks?   When you boil it down to basics, the answers really come down to:

1. Drugs-  good for minor - moderate pain; probably overutilized, real risk and harm reported

2. Surgery-  necessary in some cases; probably overutilized, real risk and harm reported

3. Us (physical therapy related interventions)- good for minor - major pain with associated impairments, functional limitations and/or disability;  probably underutilized,  no real risk or harm reported

The first step in being able to make a choice is knowing about it.  How educated are your patients and referral sources about the benefit of PT intervention for painful hip and knee OA?  Something to think about as well as how to best educate them.

Have a great weekend!

 

Rob

Comments

[John Ware]

Rob,
Throw us a bone, here. How do ya'll get the message out down there in Texas?
John

[David Penn]

Rob,

Nice post.....I think the real target audience for this message is consumers, internal medicine and family practice doctors. This is a big push in our marketing campaign. As part of my manual therapy fellowship, I have created a letter to consumers and physicians that enlighten them about the PT services. If someone could guide me on how the attachment process works, I will post this letter specific to OA.

[Rob Wainner]

John,

We use the EIM PIER's (Problem, Intervention, Evidence, Referral) and PIER related education and marketing material....great stuff!

David,

Best place for that would be to post the file in the Orthopedic community on www.MyPhysicalTherapySpace.com.
You can send it to me and I can post on the blog on your behalf if you like (I think you have posting privileges already, correct? If so you can post).

Let me know.

Thanks,

Rob

[David Penn]

Hi all,

I would like to make a correction on the letter that was psoted to be sent to physicians that was posted by Rob Wainner on my behalf since my techno savvy is not quite there on this web page.

I would like to credit my fellow students that were involved in the creation of this piece. I mistakenly put I without giving due credit to the wonderful people in the class. It was a group project ( I believe it was Charlie).

This apparently caused a fuss that was unintentional. My apologies to all my classmates at Regis.

David