Page 33 - OPTA Access March 2018

Research Committee
Report
Dawn Westfall, PT, MPT & Abraham Lee, PT – Co-Chairs
The Research
Committee has
experienced
signi cant growth
over the past year
and is excited
about the new
ideas and skills
that the newer members are sharing
Elections were held in late 2017 for several committee positions The Research Committee welcomes Abe Lee back to
the role of academic co-chair Abe is replacing Cathy Bieber Parrott Cathy has diligently served as co-chair since 2012 Her organizational, management, and writing skills have been instrumental in consistently helping the committee achieve its goals The Research Committee graciously thanks Cathy for her dedicated service as co-chair and looks forward to her continued contributions as an active member of the group
The other newly elected positions for the committee are secretary, Lindsey Brown and liaison to the Conference Committee, Sa yeh Shalash. The addition of these positions will allow for increased ef ciency in collaboration between members within in our group as well as across committees Congratulations to Lindsey and Sa yeh on their new roles!
The Research Committee conducted
a needs assessment survey in 2017 to determine how we can best meet the needs of the OPTA. The survey identi ed two
key areas that we will be working hard to address: educating clinicians on conducting research and matching clinicians with researchers based on topic of interest More details to come in future communications!
Cleveland State University’s Health Science Program hosted a Cadaver Anatomy Review Course on December 9, 2017 with proceeds in part bene tting the Research Committee’s grant fund Special thanks to Edie Benner for organizing the event and donating her time to make this possible!
At the Scienti c Symposium the Research Committee awarded funds to the two top rated grant applicants Congratulations to
the winning researchers Katie Pantano
for her project “A 10 Year Multidisciplinary Follow-Up Study of Knowledge and Practice Behaviors Used for the Female Athlete Triad” and Lindsey Brown for her study entitled “Posture and Movement Training for Persons with Non-Arthritic Hip Disease ”
It is not too soon to start considering whether you want to be the next research grant opportunity funded by the OPTA Research Committee Grant in 2018! We will begin accepting proposals May 1, 2018 The deadline for submission is August 3, 2018 Grant application forms and submission instructions will be available on the OPTA webpage under the “Research” tab (About Us > Research ) All OPTA members are eligible for the grant award
As part of our aim to promote research,
we select a topic for each newsletter to highlight important ndings related to PT practice The chosen topic for this article is diagnostic imaging Ohio physical therapists are working towards the day when we
hold all privileges of autonomous practice and are the practitioners of choice for both patients and their health networks when a patient has movement- related problems Diagnostic imaging aids in PT decision making for patient evaluation, diagnosis, and management and is therefore an important component of autonomous practice
Evidence of proper utilization of imaging
by physical therapists is present in the research literature In 2010, Bousinault et al published a case report that described the successful implementation of a direct access physical therapy model at a large academic medical center 1 This direct access model included PT referral for imaging Of the
81 patients managed by a PT as the rst point of contact provider, 8 were referred
to the radiology department for plain lm radiograph Evaluation by physicians doing chart reviews of all 81 patient records found referral to be appropriate 100% of the
time This means that those who needed radiographs got them and those who didn’t were spared the expense and radiation exposure In their clinical commentary published in 2011, Boyles et al present a summary of historical evidence showing successful patient outcomes in the presence of reduced costs when PTs in both the private health sector (outpatient clinic and emergency room) and government health sector (military) have imaging referral privileges 2 More recently a case report documented the clinical reasoning process a physical therapist used to make a referral for imaging for a person with back pain and
a history of thoracic tumor 3 The case report also documents the use of the MRI results to guide the management of the patient when making choices for exercise and manual techniques so that injury to tissues affected by the tumor were avoided The MRI was also used as a patient education tool during discussions with the patient about possible tness activity alternatives.
In 2016 the Orthopaedic Section of the APTA published a position statement titled “Diagnostic and Procedural Imaging in Physical Therapist Practice 4 To develop this position, the section commissioned a work group to consider the cumulative evidence about imaging use by PTs including cost effectiveness, liability and bene ts to health care delivery (bene t to the consumer
and to society) Their work is summarized
in 6 areas of supportive evidence for an augmented role for imaging during PT patient management In addition to literature cited here, those interested in learning more about how imaging enhances PT practice can access related research resources at
OPTA at Ohiopt org > Advocacy > OPTA Legislation > Research + Resources
Interested clinicians can also become a member of the Imaging SIG (a SIG of the Orthopaedic Section, APTA: http://ow ly/ rcQc30i64NY)
1 Boissonnault WG, Badke MB, Powers JM Pursuit and implementation of hospital- based outpatient direct access to physical therapy services: an administrative case report Phys Ther 2010;90: 100–109
2 Boyles, RE , Gorman, I , Pinto, D , Ross, MD Physical therapist practice and the role of diagnostic imaging J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2011 Nov;41(11):829-37
3 Rendeiro, DG , Deyle, GD , Boissonnault , WG Imaging in conjunction with physical therapy in management of a patient with history of thoracic tumour J Man Manip Ther 2015 Jul; 23(3): 123–127
4 Diagnostic and Procedural Imaging in Physical Therapist Practice White Paper, published May 20, 2016 Orthopaedic Section, APTA
For more information, contact Dawn or Abraham at: westfada@hotmail com or abraham lee2@utoledo edu
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