Our clinic has two locations, one in Buena Park, CA and one in Orange, CA. I cannot say the level of evidence-based practice is high in our market. Most therapists here get very good results. Some therapists use only exercise and seem to get pretty good results. Others use only modalities and do not get good results.
At our clinic, we are trying to practice based on the evidence. And we are trying to explain to doctors that our practice is different because we are more focused on research. We recently began to publish a quarterly newsletter that summarizes important papers which have affected the way we practice. Superficially, the newsletter gets a good reception because it is visually appealing, but we don't know how many doctors are actually reading it yet. Time will tell.
Evidence based practice based simply on what the research said about the specific item or medical problem . So , we must search for the documented articles to find our evidence based practice .
We recently developed a Fall Prevention Program. We introduced it by publishing a White Paper on Fall Prevention. It was seven pages of text with two pages of references (17 cited papers). The White Paper has been received very well by the medical community here. A doctor yesterday told me she did not know it was possible for physical therapy to be evidence-based. She was completely unaware of the literature in our field. She loves science and was very eager to read the White Paper. If you are interested in physical therapy for geriatrics, I can email it to you.
I'm interested by your white paper. In france we have sometimes same trouble ... Thanks to send me your work
my mail: [email protected]
Good effort Ron. ACC (Gov't run Accident Compensation Scheme) in New Zealand are actively looking at methods of reducing accidents from falls. I would appreciate a copy of your paper. Thanks.
the Journal of Orthopedic & Sports Physical Therapy has published several clinical guideline manuscripts in conjunction with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF). They have papers on knee, Achilles, heel pain, neck and hip. What is nice about these manuscripts is they provide a quick summary of the evidence in areas related to examanition and interventions for the regions stated above. in addition, they link the information to the new ICD-10 codes and ICF functioning guidelines that healthcare will be transitioning to in the future. Essentially, they've done a lot of digging within the literature and provided a nice framework on which areas have strong, moderate, and weak evidence to support utilization. It is worth checking out. I've provided a few doi: references below:
J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2010:40(6):A1-A35. doi:10.2519/jospt.2010.0304
J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2008:38(4):A1-A18. doi:10.2519/jospt.2008.0302
J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2010:40(9):A1-A26. doi:10.2519/jospt.2010.0305