Speechless. Yes, that would have been me this week. It wasn't for lack of verbal capacity. I was speechless because I found myself without a voice this week. In reality, I still had a voice, but it was some strange amalgam of squeaks and crackles. It was a vocal sound worthy of puberty far more than that of a 48 year-old man.
This is what happens when the allergens start kicking up in Austin. For all the positives of life in Central Texas, the pollen counts definitely have a negative impact.
I am sure you can imagine that there were at least a few students (and probably a few friends as well) that were more than happy that I was a little speechless. But I digress.
So what do you do when you are tending to a vocal impairment? Stop talking and start ... writing! Welcome to episode 079 of the Rhubarb Report.
We spend a lot of time and energy thinking about the stimulus. It comes in the form of a training session, a treatment, or a medical intervention. In the world of sport, coaches focus on the specific training session(s) to perform in order to enhance performance. In the world of health care, we focus on the treatment intervention that will provide a specific treatment effect. The stimulus reigns supreme in our collective consciousness.
But a stimulus is only as good as the response it evokes. Better yet, a stimulus is only as good as the body's ability to recover from and adapt to the applied stimulus.
Recovery is the critical, and oftentimes forgotten, component of optimal health.
You have the freedom of speech. You have the freedom of assembly. You have the freedom of expression.
In the United States, you have a lot of freedoms and rights. But, strangely enough, you don't have the freedom to choose your health care provider. There is, more often than not, some gatekeeper-driven law that is trying to "protect you" while ultimately controlling who you receive care from and how it takes place.
Most would consider this blatantly unacceptable if it happened to their freedom of speech or expression. But in the vast majority of US states (32), this is exactly what happens.
In health care in 2013, it is high time for consumers to have The Right To Choose.
Breaking news: the US government is back in operation. I have trouble at times deciding if that is a good thing or a bad thing these days. But suffice it to say that we are back to "business as usual" - it's the "as usual" that is the most problematic aspect of that phrase.
It's been a bit of a crazy October for me. Between my 25th college reunion and a speaking engagement at an annual conference, I have found myself out of town for about a third of the month. That's enough to keep me feeling a little out of sync. I am looking forward to November, though with it comes a time change and the realization that the sun sets a whole lot earlier in wintertime.
Onwards to Episode 078 of the Rhubarb Report!
Although we probably already have enough "models of care" to last a lifetime, I think we would do well to focus on one simple abbreviation: ADTO, or Assessment-Diagnosis-Treatment-Outcome. This model could, quite simply, save millions if not billions of dollars for health care consumers. But before it can do so, it needs to become a foundation for researchers, clinicians, and patients alike.
Across the continuum of health care, our goal as clinicians should be reliability, consistency and reproducibility. There should be a scientific method-based foundation for health care. But even if we have this, patients need to also have it as their accepted community standard of care.
So what does ADTO mean to patients? And why is it important?
The phrase comes up regularly in patient care: "There is not one treatment approach that will work for all patients". This then leads to the inevitable perceived need for an "eclectic treatment approach".
Of course, the more "tools in your toolbox", the better a clinician you are believed to be. Ugh.
I hear this regularly in both clinical and educational settings. You know what? I disagree. Completely. There is one approach that applies to all patients. It is highly effective, and it is critical to clinical success.
It's name? Science - and more specifically, clinical reasoning and critical thinking.
We are now 13 days into a government shutdown in the United States. It is hard to imagine that any group has the power to simply "shut down" governmental operations. Worse yet, it is even harder to imagine that any group can do so while pushing an agenda counter to legislation that has already passed into law. But I digress.
Politics in the United States have reached new levels for acrimony, disrespect, and a general disdain for the desires of the constituency. What is most annoying - and, frankly, downright disgusting - is how legislators can claim to quote the values of the Constitution while failing to provide context in the process. But as we all know, words without context bear greater power for instilling fear - and fear is a great motivator.
So while we all wait to see if the country will go back online, it's time for Episode 77 of the Rhubarb Report.
Up to 60% of runners will sustain an injury within any given year. Poor running mechanics, in conjunction with poor, ineffective and outdated training methods, can pose a significant injury risk. "RunSmart" was written to address these issues in the running community.
"Running Injuries: Etiology And Recovery- Based Treatment" (co-author Bridget Clark, PT) appears in the third edition and fourth editions of "Clinical Orthopaedic Rehabilitation: A Team Approach" by Charles Giangarra, MD and Robert C. Manske, PT.
Allan Besselink, PT, DPT, Ph.D., Dip.MDT has a unique voice in the world of sports, education, and health care. Read more about Allan here.
Top 5 finalist in three categories: "Best Overall Blog", "Best PT Blog" and "Best Advocacy Blog".
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