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Twitter and Tweets and Twits

You read correctly... twits.

Curiosity killed the cat.  I was curious about Twitter.  I've been reading a lot of tweets about "back pain."  It's very easy to search for terms with TweetDeck.  Social media and all the venues for communication are fabulous, yes.  There are twits out there though... the freedom of speech is great, but what if liberties are being taken and what is being spewed is just crap?  Oh, and crap gets retweeted and retweeted.  The more it gets retweeted the more truthful it must be, right?

Let's take today for the last few hours: 

Arthritis Back Pain Management and What Causes Back Pain:  Nice start with the video but then progressively worsens to increase fear level AND plants the seed multiple diagnostic tests are needed.  The written portion focuses on tylenol for treatment.

Chronic back pain "sufferers" need to plan on a massage every 3-4 weeks - a solid massage therapy wellness plan. 

The "Back Pain Myths" Slideshow has a great beginning until... until slide 9.   " The American College of Physicians and American Pain Society guidelines for treatment of lower back pain recommend that patients and doctors consider spinal manipulation -- either by a chiropractor or a massage therapist -- for patients with back pain."  Ooops...

Back to the Basics, of course, suggests many diagnostic tests and to see a doctor.

I read zero tweets from physical therapists about back pain.  We treat this every day - day in and day out.  It'd be nice if there were physical therapists out tweeting the twits. 

To end on a positive note:  Here is something noteworthy from Arthritis News:  There is now a new diagnostic rule for vertebral fracture:  female gender, age > 70 years, significant trauma and prolonged use of corticosteroids.  The likelihood ratio increases, of course, the more factors present.  The published findings can be found in Arthritis and Rheumatism.  Arthritis News shared this article.

Does anyone else believe it might be a good idea to join the social media and drown the twits?

~Selena

photo by Paul Denton Crocker via Flickr

Psst…the secret is out…PT is effective & cost effective

The sheer size and variability of the new media and information outlets is staggering.  Sometimes it is hard to rise above the high volume of data to provide clarity to problems.   I would like the EIM readers to take a few minutes and view some powerful messages from Regis University Physical Therapist students who are involved in an Advanced Manipulation course. 

Healthcare Reform- Manual Physical Therapy

Physical Therapy and Low Back Pain- A Silent Movie

Please liberally share the links in your Facebook, Twitter, and even old fashioned email messages.  Lets get the momentum going as we head to the AAOMPT/Orthopaedic Section Capitol Hill Day in Washington, DC next month. 

Tim

Cost of Physical Inactivity is more than $24.3 Billion

$24.3 billion is an interesting amount.  It's the amount of money Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has to cut from his budget. In 2005 it was the amount consumers spent on renting or purchasing movies.  Okay, the data suggesting the cost of physical inactivity is outdated (2001-2004).  Reality... $147 billion. 

Metabolic Syndrome was first identified in 1920.  In 2004 a group of experts met to create a consensus statement to clarify standards to identify metabolic syndrome and define treatment strategies.

An interesting twist in current research is that electronic health records can identify primary care patients at risk of future diabetes and/or coronary heart disease by alerting the primary care physician when 2 or more metabolic syndrome criteria are present.

Take one guess what can reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome by 50%.  The answer is moderate to vigorous exercise for 180 minutes per week.

Where are physical therapists in this matter?

~Selena 

photo by Greg Robbins via Flickr

Do the Right Thing: It is Cheaper & More Effective

Amidst the noise of the healthcare debate when it comes to musculoskeletal problems the solution is pretty easy.  The current state of affairs for most patients who have low back pain looks like this:

 

However, a recent report by Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield and trumpeted by Dr. Scott Ward, PT demonstrated that patients with musculoskeletal conditions who receive physical therapy are less likely to have surgery, incur lower costs, and fare better than patients who do not receive such services.  There has never been a more opportune time to let your voices be heard.  It is a simple request “PT Direct Access for all Medicare patients and remove the senseless CAP.  Please let your representatives know frequently and often.  The right thing to do looks like this:

If you have not committed to either attending the AAOMPT and Orthopaedic Section, APTA Capitol Hill Day or committed to writing your representatives during that week it is now time to commit.  To date we have approximately 150 colleagues that will be joining us on that day.  However, we are still missing representation from a few states…really use some representation from AL, AR, CT, DE, KY, and OH.  I know we have folks from there!  If you are still not motivated to “be of some use” than please listen to my favorite motivator!

Tim

AAOMPT Grass Roots Letter Writing Campaign Led by the AAOMPT Student SIG

As committee chairs and leaders within the student special interest group (sSIG) of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists (AAOMPT), we are writing concerning the upcoming AAOMPT National Conference which will be held October 14-18, 2009 in Washington DC. An integral part of this conference will be an exciting Capitol Hill Day Event on Thursday October 15th where participants, both physical therapists and students, will travel to Capitol Hill to meet with legislators regarding important issues impacting the physical therapy profession.

 

To this end we are writing to ask your help in recruiting students to attend this event by spreading the word about the conference and Capitol Hill Day. For more information and to register for the conference please visit the AAOMPT website:

AAOMPT Website: http://aaompt.org/
AAOMPT National Conference Website/Sign-up: http://www.aaompt.org/events/conference09/

Further, we are also organizing a grass roots letter writing campaign for ANYONE who can not attend this event. We will be compiling information on how to find your representatives, contact members of congress, talking points, and letter suggestions as well as timelines for contact. While this will be aimed at students, we want ANYONE and EVERYONE to participate.

If you would please pass on this information to any students we would be extremely appreciative. We will be sending you detailed information regarding the letter writing campaign. This information will also be posted on the sSIG website/blog. For more information please visit:

AAOMPT: Student Special Interest Group Blog: http://ssigaaompt.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to seeing you in DC!

AAOMPT sSIG

Deaths Due to Lack of Insurance

The world probably would be a better place if everyone had health care insurance.  I say *probably* because it really does seem like the right thing - a human thing - a caring thing. 

A recent study attributes 45,000 deaths a year  due to lack of insurance.  The population considered were 64 years of age and younger.

If I am allowed to extrapolate a little bit using some current data for uninsured, that means that 46.3 million uninsured run a risk of dying because they don't have health insurance.  So, even though the 1 death in every 12 minutes computation sounds horrible, mathematically the occurrence is something like .0972%.

Now the flip side... life isn't a fairy tale.  Just because one has medical health insurance does not mean death won't occur.  There happen to be reports on in-hospital medical deaths.  (And this considers only the 65+ age group!)  These reports have led to the 100,000 Lives Campaign and then the 5 Million Lives Campaign.  Medical mistakes could potentially be rated within the top 5 or top 10 causes of death.  Depending on what research you want to read, Starfield estimates iatrogenic causes for about 225,000 deaths.  Mathematically, this comes to about .0882%.

Take another slightly different spin:
2.5 million deaths/year
45,000 deaths/year due to lack of insurance
225,000 deaths/year due to iatrogenic causes

If we do the math, we have WAY more problems in our health care system than uninsured, don't you think?

It's almost as though we make a choice.  Why do we choose the fairy tale choice?

~Selena

photo by chasingEchos via Flickr

EBP Disconnect between what we think we have and what we want

Per this Summer 2009 Lake Research Partners poll of 800 California voters and reported in the health policy blog with links to entire survey summary.

Consumers really do want EBP and unfortunately don’t know that they don’t have it.

You can get updates like this on our twitter account where we frequently post related and unrelated posts on physical therapy.

larry@physicaltherapist.com

Meet Taizou, The Physical Therapy Robot.

Per this article.  From the same country that brought us the Wii and as a way to deal with Japan’s rapidly growth, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) has recently unveiled a new robot designed for human interaction. The head is designed to inspire good feelings while offering physical therapy exercise and overall rehabilitation instruction thru examples.

For some video, you can go here (don’t count on being able to read the exercise descriptions but no doubt this link is teaching this patient how to scratch his back)

My sources tell me that the U.S. version has been in beta in physician offices and being billed "incident to" and can provide up to 8 minutes of therapeutic exercise before its batteries need recharging.

larry@physicaltherapist.com

Current Musings on the Healthcare Debate

Now that the debate has been re-engaged, I can’t get the following out of my head and still haven’t found answers to the random thoughts I had back in June.

-Medicare is going broke. Everybody agrees on this one-particularly the CBO.  If we can’t get it right, what makes us think we can fund perpetually a public option when zero specifics of “removing waste and inefficiency” aren’t producing financial numbers?

-Public Option suffers from a marketing problem. As currently presented, it is too nebulous for stakeholders-potential patients, employers, and the medical community.  Most people I know when they think of what a “public option: looks like they almost always visualize the postal system and the licensing bureau.  Most people I know have never experienced the “British system” either so this comparison falls flat on its face.  This lack of tangibility doesn’t bode well for those trying to sell this option.

-The Government talks about “effectiveness research”-essentially an EBP approach.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t listen to its own prescription.  Economists on both sides of the political fence know that stimulus plans don’t work yet they enacted the largest one ever.  We also know that the employer model of healthcare has failed-why are we talking about expanding it and eliminating the individual market per the current plan?

-as mentioned in prior posts-health, healthcare delivery, and insurance reform are significantly different complex circles in a Venn diagram that have minimal overlap-why do we have one bill that tries to “cure” all 3?  This would be akin to fixing a sprained ankle by giving antibiotics for the concurrent ear infection.

-The hidden cost of healthcare-the so called moral hazard problem doesn’t even get addressed in the current plan.  When somebody else is paying for healthcare, who cares how much it costs?  This Atlantic article is the most precise that I have read on this whole issue and the fundamental problems which include 3^rd party payment and more dramatically the out of pocket costs for individuals with and without health insurance (minimal).

-the real losers of all of this are the 40+ million without insurance.  Why can’t we address that specific problem without trying to revolutionize the whole system?

larry@physicaltherapist.com

See You In The Funny Papers!

Being an Evidence-Based Cat and a big fan of the funny pages, I was delighted to read this Sunday’s edition of Doonesbury. I would let you read it over my shoulder, but I’m told that I have a tendency to take up most of the page and obstruct the view of those around me. For an unobstructed view, check it out here.  Who knew that evidence could be so funny? Thank you Mr. Trudeau...and to all my evidence-based friends....see you in the funny papers!

Cheers from Smokey the EBC...