Physical Therapists Screening for Red Flags

After sharing my thoughts on the Controversy of Back Pain and then reading the information Chris Maher emailed to me, I believe physical therapists just might begin challenging their thoughts on what they believe they know about "red flags."  Are red flags just a simple yes/no kind of list?  In all honesty, I really haven't had the time to really review the references Maher shared with me, but I'm assuming there just might be a situation arising in my brain of "oh, no... here we go again, out with the old, in with the new..." 

The American Cancer Society always projects the number of new cases of cancer on an annual basis.  Within that same report, the number of deaths due to cancer are estimated.  Because cancer continues to affect all of us, the practice of medical screening for red flags is obviously important not only from a clinical perspective, but also from an emotional perspective.

Now we're at a point where my ability to be tactful is challenged.  We may not only have a controversy between physical therapists with regard to the logistics of how it is determined to define subgroups of patients with back pain... but what if there happens to be a controversy around red flags?  You can probably find out for yourself during the American Physical Therapy Association Combined Sections Meeting.  On February 18 from 10:30-12, prior to Hancock and Maher's session, there is a session titled, "Medical Screening for Oncology Issues in Physical Therapy."  Mary Lou Galantino, PT, Laura Gilchrist, PT, Victoria Marchese, PT, G Stephen Morris, PT, Kirsten Ness, MA, MPH, PhD and Meredith Wampler, PT will be discussing screening for red flag, sharing the most common late-effects of cancer and its treatment and also touching on screening patients with a previous history of cancer for the late effects of cancer.

If there seems to be a clashing of information, how does this get resolved?  How will you choose to practice if mixed messages are presented between groups of colleagues?  I don't have the answer and maybe there won't be clashing information, just sayin'.

photo by Indy Charlie via Flickr

~Selena