After reviewing the programming sessions - I just have to share what I put together.

I definitely wanted to give a shout out to all the tweeps I know presenting. Support your tweeps, see them in action and learn from them in real life! Congrats to all of you - I'm excited for you because I know you love what you do, have passion and love to share your expertise! This is really special and challenging because you have to do it in WAY more than 140 characters! You guys all rock!

Since I am frequently a guest blogger over at Evidence in Motion, I wanted to give a shout out to presenters affiliated with EIM. Of course, they aren't presenting for EIM; they are presenting as themselves. The material they are presenting should be top notch. You'll have an excellent opportunity to experience their presentation style and a nice opportunity to become familiar with EIM primary faculty. Now if you really like the informal ability to really talk and learn from someone, the new fun thing at CSM is Technopalooza. You have the perfect opportunity to meet Larry Benz as he shares EIM PT Mobile on Thursday at 1:30 pm! Tell him I said hi! Bet he'll give you a free code for the app if you mention this! I've been known to be wrong though... it never hurts to ask!

Lastly, it just wouldn't be like me to leave out sessions that may engage you after some of the longest, buzziest debates online! If you followed along through the Trigger Point Dry Needling blog post or Women's Health Section supporting Visceral Manipulation blog post... I included a few sessions in which some of the debaters are presenting. I also included sessions revolving around pain and pain science.

I will assume, if a session indicates "Over Capacity," it will be wise of you to get to that room sooner than later. In the last few years, the APTA is very, very strict on not allowing room overflow. Congrats to those of you who already have a sell out!

Special thanks for those in the Geriatrics Section who shared and conversed on this topic.

For those of you not sure where the Combined Section Meeting will be held, this year it is in the Windy City... Chicago, Illinois from February 8-11, 2012. Normally CSM kicks off with an awards ceremony for all the physical therapists who achieved board certification, but I'm not really seeing any details about the opening ceremony as of yet.

For those of you not familiar with the midwest... be prepared for cold temperatures along with snow, ice, and definitely wind! Transportation is going to be key. If you happen to look at a map, chances are your hotel location will be a mile or more from the convention center. Those of you who are die-hards might choose to hoof it, but... I bet the majority will be concerned with how to get from point A to point B.

There will be a free shuttle service from Hilton Chicago, Palmer House and McCormick Place's Lakeside Center. The shuttle service runs from 7 - 11 am and then again from 3 - 6:30 pm. For reference, the Hilton is at 720 South Michigan Avenue. I don't know about the rest of you, but I may not want to be stuck from 11 am - 3 pm at the Lakeside Center, so, here's a map you can use to help solve transportation issues. I'm someone who would probably take the train, so that was my first choice (it's faster and less stops), but you can play around with bus options, if you'd like.

The physical therapists who have been planning this event have definitely taken into consideration the distance between locations. Sessions this year will be in 2 hour blocks of time. There will be 30 minutes between sessions to allow for travel time.

From 8 am - 10 am, sessions are scheduled to be at the hotel or Lakeside Center.

From 10:30 am - 12:30 pm, all sessions will be scheduled at Lakeside Center.

From 1:00 - 3:00 pm is exhibit hall hours, with no educational programming. (That does explain being "stranded" at Lakeside Center.)

From 3:30 - 5:30 pm, sessions will be scheduled in the hotel or Lakeside Center.

Me, I'm worried about eating. I don't like to be cold, wet, tired OR hungry... the last time I was at an APTA conference in Chicago at the Lakeside Center, I was majorly disappointed in the eating options. I have no clue what will be available with regard to food... no shuttle... nothing near the Lakeside Center... and a LOT of attendees who just might be hungry like me. Hopefully all don't get as grouchy as I do. Just giving everyone a grouch alert... I'll be happy in the morning and grumpy in the afternoon if food multiple food options with shorter than longer lines aren't available.

Next up... the last couple of years have been disappointing with regard to sessions being closed. There's nothing worse than paying for a conference, attending and then not being able to attend the desired sessions (combined with no free audio or anything for all of us customers). If you are like me, when you register, you are just checking something off your "to-do" list. Register like usual. Then create a reminder for the beginning of December. In December, snag the email you received confirming your registration. Copy the registration ID number from that email and paste it in this link in the "confirmation ID" space. Then, please be responsible and "modify session selections." Maybe if enough of us shared our preferences by early December it will be less likely that closed sessions will occur.

Enjoy the conference. If you plan on attending, tweet your experience using #CSM2012 and if you aren't able to attend, follow along or interact on Twitter using #CSM2012

 

Recently published in Physical Therapy Journal is a call for international collaboration to develop clinical guidelines. My perception of international means reaching all physical therapists - across big bodies of water and across all borders. This is all well and good... but the American Physical Therapy Association isn't quite supportive of "international" or "collaboration" at this time based on what the association does and supports (i.e. PTNow and select few nominated "experts"). Collaboration doesn't just happen overnight. I'd like to think collaboration requires some networking and will be based on relationships. Relationships take time to create.

At the same time... IF international collaboration occurs and IF the goal is to truly improve patient care, then that also means a fully accessible, free medium is required in order to reach the masses. 

Historically, the American Physical Therapy Association tends to maintain a tight association with volunteer member driven activities. Believing in international collaboration means supporting something bigger and more far reaching than an association's capabilities. If this is what is truly believed, then actions need to support activities that meet the goal of international collaboration with the ultimate goal of reaching larger masses of physical therapists to help improve the care they provide to their patients.

One global option exists to help get the ball rolling... the APTA CAN financially support the endeavor: Physiopedia.

Sharing... sure makes life easier for some of us. Just finished this project I needed for a current patient. Maybe it'll save you time and be helpful too!

The APTA has done a great job streamlining the consumer portal at http://www.moveforwardpt.com/ and I like the quality of the tweets for consumers coming out of http://twitter.com/MoveforwardPT

Coming soon for APTA members is PTNow: http://www.apta.org/PTNow/ The main goal of this endeavor is to provide an educational, online resource for APTA members.

Did you realize the BOD approved a budget exceeding $1,000,000 for development and content expertise of these 2 projects? Not only that, the BOD also budgeted for annual maintenance and expansion? At the time, I do believe the BOD should be applauded for being forward thinking and creatively coming up with a way to help members more readily find and more easily review evidence. Times change... and sometimes as times change, previous ideas sometimes aren't as fabulous as originally proposed which means original ideas need to evolve.

Currently, I do see a slight problem with this current endeavor and believe it may be in the best interest of members and our association to scrap some aspects of the educational component. I believe a lot of work has been done in creating content and meeting time lines in rolling out some evidence within the PTNow portal. I believe the aspect of nominating members to review and create content summaries can remain as planned. I also believe the idea of fellows and residents being involved and contributing material is a great giving back/sharing opportunity for our profession AND should be well-received from members who will utilize their work in the clinic so patients reap benefits. The whole structure of freely giving and sharing to members is great. Although this is true, I believe there is a better opportunity for our association and our members. An opportunity that has the same flavor of openly giving/sharing/contributing, but on a much, much larger scale exists.

Panera Bread did something completely out of the ordinary. This company created Panera Cares Cafe. This was a small step that embraced trust and focused on the well-being of a community. http://tinyurl.com/3u3ry3f Our association and our members have an awesome opportunity to be leaders in helping the well-being of our professional community -  a community that extends far beyond the borders of our nation. Our association has an international opportunity that it can take right now. All our association has to do is put a stop to creating a second portal - eliminate creating a educational resource portal. Our association can easily support Physiopedia financially and with content. http://www.physio-pedia.com Physiopedia already has a twitter account and a facebook account which readily alert new content. Contributors could easily have it readily known their educational affiliation and APTA membership which would gain them international recognition. The APTA would be the first association to take a step in social responsibility by helping all physical therapists and helping the whole population of the world by embracing exactly what was already being embraced with PTNow, but on a much, much larger scale than APTA members.

As a member of the APTA, I would really, really like my membership dollars to be spent supporting Physiopedia. I love the idea of my membership dollars not only helping me, but helping so many others. I love the idea of my membership dollars potentially having an impact on the care provided across the world. And maybe, Physiopedia could change something in its format... somewhere a "thank you" area, where we all can readily see the impact of our dollars helping others - to remember, we're all in this together, doing the best we can.

Selena Horner, PT

What motivates others to choose to take action?

Inexcusable death often motivates others to take action to create change.  I know I am not alone with my thoughts and feelings revolving around Fran Crippen's death. 

Sure, FINA is investigating the circumstance.  Trust... how trustworthy is their investigative ability?  That I don't know - the task force is comprised of 5 members.  Seems strange to me the "chairman" of the task force is an attorney.  (For some reason, that fact creates a negative impression for me.)  Another member - Dr. Antonio Pelliccia, MD seems to have a focus on cardiovascular health and sudden death.  I tend to think ventricular hypertrophy when I hear "sudden death."  I also immediately think of screening processes (physicals) for determining whether athletes have a high cardiovascular risk in suddenly dying during competition due to ventricular hypertrophy.  Dr. Harold Vervaecke, PhD appears specialized in event management.  I couldn't find information on his company and could only find the International Life Saving Federation.  The whole focus on the federation is water safety and basically training and certifying and competing in being safe in water.  Mr. Greg Towle is an open water swim coach for elite athletes.  I have no idea if he has any sort of background in exercise physiology.  Then, there is Dr. Tobie Smith.  She is a family practice physician in New York City who competed in 1998 FINA World Championships in Perth, Australia.  I know family practice physicians do not have a ton of training or knowledge in exercise physiology.

From my perspective, I don't believe the task force includes a high caliber of professionals specializing in the areas where there were glaring problems.  I believe it is excellent one member has knowledge on event management.  There doesn't seem to be adequate representation on the task force in the area of exercise physiology or the science of exercise.  I am not alone in my thoughts.  USA-Swimming has the same doubts as myself - they are calling for any information, recommendations or suggestions relative to their independent investigation of Fran Crippen's death.

So, here's my targeted call... to anyone who has knowledge or expertise in the area of exercise physiology, please consider contributing evidence/research specific to maximal performance and water temperature.  To make this endeavor easy, you can share research on this topic here:  http://www.mendeley.com/groups/618831/open-water-swimming-and-hyperthermia/ov...  If you happen to know of others knowledgeable in this topic, please ask them to contribute.

Let's help make open water swimming a safe competitive event.

Thanks in advance.

 

For those of you unaware, an elite American athlete recently died during a competitive event.  He died while competing in a 10K open water swim in Dubai.  Fran Crippen was focusing on the 2012 Olympics.

To save you time in looking - here's a glimpse of what the event was probably like from the perspective of one competitor.   A competitor speaks out:  http://tinyurl.com/29z376o  Since maybe none of you knew Fran, I have also included a link to a small peek into who he was as an athlete and a man.  20 Memories: http://tinyurl.com/28rnovz

I didn't know Fran, but I have very strong feelings about what I have read about the circumstances of his death.  I don't believe anyone should lose life competing in a sporting event.  I believe athletes (no matter what their age or performance level) should be confident that an event is managed with their safety as a priority.  I know we can't prevent all mishaps, injuries or deaths from occurring.  I believe as a collective we, we can and should share our knowledge and expertise to help prevent unnecessary death. 

Currently, no one knows the exact reason for his death, but based on everything I have read thus far, my gut feeling is that the water temperature was a huge factor combined with very poor event management.  I began doing triathlons a few years ago, and since I am in Michigan, I have never worried or even wondered about hot water temperatures, but instead learned about cold water temperatures and the use of wet suits.  When the initial report hit Twitter on Fran's death, I had quite a few questions around the incident (as I am sure many have) based on some of the information being put out there.  I can't have a voice or help with change in some of the details that I think were event management issues that need to be addressed, but as a physical therapist I thought I could be a small voice to help with one of the potential factors that led to his death - maximal performance and water temperature.  How does water temperature affect the body's maximal performance?  Is there a cut-off point that should be used to ensure optimal, maximal performance and reduce potential bodily harm (and death)?  Sadly, I don't have enough resources to do this on my own.  I wasn't able to find much and what I did find wasn't full text.

It has consistently sounded like Fan had issues about safety during these international events.  Open water competition is fairly new and maybe all the bugs haven't been worked out yet.  Sadly, his death opens the door for opportunity - an opportunity to assist in providing information to help establish water temperature guidelines.  Hyperthermia isn't a pleasant experience on land (been there done that this year)... I can only imagine what it might be like in the water. 

Do any of you have the desire, time or resources to give a small gift to Fran's family, in particular his sister Maddy?  I would love to see a compilation of research to help determine a recommendation on water temperature guidelines to provide to her, his family and the swimming community at large.  Of course, timing is of essence.  It would be nice to do this quickly and have information at their fingertips by the end of November.  I think this would be a great gesture.

Anyone can feel free to respond to this call for help in finding evidence.  Another option, I created a group in Mendeley - if you have research evidence on maximal performance and water temperature, you can contribute here:  http://www.mendeley.com/groups/618831/open-water-swimming-and-hyperthermia/ov...

Thanks in advance for your time and assistance in making a difference in the lives of athletes.

~Selena

photo via tyr.com

 

I snagged this off the internet because I could not find the original article.  Thank you Proactive PT for keeping the article around.  The drawing on page 2 is priceless!