A Great NPR Interview!

Earlier this week, Dr. James Weinstein was featured on the popular NPR program, Fresh Air.  Dr Weinstein is well known to Physical Therapists as the author of the very interesting SPORT trial, which examined surgical vs. non-surgical outcomes in patients with disk herniation.  The interview is about 30 minutes and if you go to the page, you may also be pleased to find a nice Q&A about back pain with Dr. Anthony Delitto as well.  This is obviously some good PR for PT right?  Well, not so much.

A few minutes into the interview, Dr. Weinstein was asked how he felt about the effectiveness of non-surgical interventions such as physical therapy.  His response stung a bit at first: “If PT means getting back to your usual activity, then I am for that.”  He continued to describe how he encourages patients to maintain their usual daily activities.  The sting got a little worse when chiropractic was mentioned and Dr. Weinstein responded about the positive benefits of hands-on treatment.  My professional defensiveness was about to rear its ugly head! 

In actuality, Dr. Weinstein is speaking the same language as physical therapists.  He encourages active treatments, he acknowledges the importance of hands-on manipulative therapy, he decries the overuse of radiologic imaging, and spoke of the importance of strong core muscle function.  When I look at it from this perspective, I'm pretty excited that thousands of listeners got to hear this message from a trusted, respected orthopaedic surgeon!  The physical therapy profession could never hope for such a teaser to our potential customers. 

This interview is a perfect public relations opportunity and a lesson.  Thousands of people have heard our message, and will be able to relate to it when they hear it again from us.  Our professional association has an opportunity to lead the way in a well-crafted, wide ranging follow-up campaign. 

The lesson, however, is a stark one.  Dr. Weinstein seems unaware of the characteristics of high-quality physical therapy care.  What throws me off more than anything is his lack of appreciation for physical therapy treatment, which is what constituted his comparison group in the SPORT trial.  I can only assume that the physical therapy he encountered was rapt with wild practice variation, variable outcomes, and under-utilization of manual therapy.  The result was his correct assumption that physical therapy treatment can be reduced to the common thread of 'moving around'. 

The branding of our profession is weak.  The opportunities to improve it are ripe. 

Dr. Weinstein, if your reading this, we at Evidence in Motion would love to buy you some coffee, talk about your back pain, and talk about how truly great our profession is.  We're on the same team, after all!

ERIC
 

Comments

[Carleen]

I sympathize with your thunderectomy, John Ware :)

[Carleen]

I agree with you Eric, I had the same responses to this interview. I applauded the message Dr. Weinstein was conveying, but it didn't come without lightly raising my professional hackles.