This PTJ podcast is the "Stepping Forward With Gait Rehabilitation" Symposium, which took place at the American Physical Therapy Association's 2010 Combined Sections Meeting, on February 19, 2010, in San Diego, California. The symposium honors Dr Jacquelin Perry and her many invaluable contributions to gait rehabilitation. In the symposium, Arthur Kuo, PhD, Sara Mulroy, PT, PhD, Francine Malouin, PT, PhD, and Diane Damiano, PT, PhD—researchers who contributed to PTJ’s Special Series on Gait—share highlights of their work and demonstrate cutting-edge and future directions in gait assessment and rehabilitation. The symposium was led by Special Issue Editors Sara Mulroy, PT, PhD, and Janice Eng, PT, PhD.

Dale Avers, PT, PhD, lead author Manuel Hernandez, and moderator Kathleen Kline Mangione, PT, PhD, GCS, PTJ Editorial Board Member, discuss the clinical implications of “Decreased Muscle Strength Relates to Self-Reported Stooping, Crouching, or Kneeling Difficulty in Older Adults” (January 2010), which represents physical therapists' attempt to understand the relationship between function and impairment. Dr Avers contributes insights from her exploration of the effectiveness of exercise interventions in preventing mobility disability in aging adults.

How far are we from having individualized prediction rules for hand and arm function in patients with stroke? With clinicians in mind, noted experts Gert Kwakkel, PhD, Nicolas Schweighofer, PhD, and Carolee Winstein, PT, PhD, FAPTA, and moderator Daniel Riddle, PT, PhD, FAPTA, summarize the state of the art of prognosis for upper-extremity function after stroke and distill the results of “A Functional Threshold for Long-Term Use of Hand and Arm Function Can Be Determined: Predictions From a Computational Model and Supporting Data From the Extremity Constraint-Induced Therapy Evaluation (EXCITE) Trial” (December 2009). This elegant article takes on a complicated topic, but the implications for practice are clear and exciting.

Participants: Doreen Bartlett, PT, PhD, and authors James Cole Galloway, PT, PhD, and Jill C. Heathcock, PT, PhD. Moderator: Rebecca L. Craik, PT, PhD, FAPTA, PTJ Editor in Chief. Reevaluate the principles upon which development occurs—and look not just at the brain, and not just at behavior, but at “brain behavior.” Bartlett, Heathcock, and Galloway discuss the implications of “Exploring Objects With Feet Advances Movement in Infants Born Preterm: A Randomized Controlled Trial” (October 2009 issue). This discussion is dedicated to Dr Esther Thelen, the developmental psychologist who “applied dynamics systems theory—which the public knows as chaos theory—to the study of movement of babies,” explains Craik.

Moderating from her current assignment in the Iraq theatre, Maj Nicole Raney, USAF, PT, a Lackland Air Force Base administrator, focuses the discussion on the clinical implications of contemporary war injuries. MAJ Stuart Campbell, PT, USA, is a physical therapist at the Center for the Intrepid, where John Fergason is a civilian in the role of chief prosthetist. CPT Mark Lester, PT, USA, is a physical therapist at the US Army Institute of Surgical Research (ISR) Burn Center, Brooke Army Medical Center, and CAPT Daniel Watson, PT, USAF, is a physical therapist who has just returned from Iraq.

Advancements in medical intervention on the battlefield have resulted in dramatically improved survival rates compared with those of the Vietnam War--which means that many service members are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with complex injuries that have life-long implications, such as multiple limb loss, traumatic brain injury, and posttraumatic stress disorder. In Part 1, Maj John Childs, PT, PhD, USAF, BSC, a member of the faculty at US Army-Baylor University, leads colleagues in a discussion about the impact of these war injuries on rehabilitation research priorities, funding, and infrastructure. Participants: Benjamin Darter, PT, PhD; LTC Rachel Evans, PT, PhD, USA; COL(R) Rebecca Hooper, PT, PhD, USA.

Listen to the 40th Mary McMillan Lecture--"The Best We Can Be Is Yet to Come"--delivered by Dr Carolee Winstein at the opening ceremonies of PT 2009: The Annual Conference and Exposition of the American Physical Therapy Association on June 10, 1009, in Baltimore, Maryland. Introducing Dr Winstein is APTA President Dr R. Scott Ward.

As the US Congress and the American people debate the future of health care in this country, the focus often is on skyrocketing costs, and health care providers are being called to demonstrate the health and economic value of their services. Cost-analysis and comparative effectiveness research are important tools in demonstrating economic value. “Assessment of the Quality of Cost Analysis Literature in Physical Therapy” (August 2009) reports a study that was commissioned by APTA to rate the quality of the cost-analysis literature in physical therapy. In this podcast, the participants discuss the implications and limitations of this study and further research needs. Get insights into cost-effectiveness research—where it’s at, where it needs to go, and how the current research can, and cannot, inform clinical decisions.

Literature about clinical prediction rules (CPRs) is growing exponentially, and it's one of the hottest topics in physical therapy today. Fundamental differences of opinion exist regarding the optimal approach to identifying whether subgroups of more homogeneous patients respond to a specific type of intervention. What’s the current state of CPR development—and what does it all mean for practice and research? When it comes to day-to-day clinical decisions, how confident can you be about these data? In July 2009, PTJ published a Perspective titled "A Guide to Interpretation of Studies Investigating Subgroups of Responders to Physical Therapy Interventions" by Mark Hancock, Robert D. Herbert, and Christopher G. Maher. In this podcast, 2 of the authors debate the issues with Julie Fritz. As Fritz notes, “a big problem we all deal with is the amount of variability that there is in practice.” This podcast debate faces the hard questions head on.

Literature about clinical prediction rules (CPRs) is growing exponentially, and it’s one of the hottest topics in physical therapy today. Fundamental differences of opinion exist regarding the optimal approach to identifying whether subgroups of more homogeneous patients respond to a specific type of intervention. What’s the current state of CPR development—and what does it all mean for practice and research? When it comes to day-to-day clinical decisions, how confident can you be about these data? In July 2009, PTJ published a Perspective titled "A Guide to Interpretation of Studies Investigating Subgroups of Responders to Physical Therapy Interventions" by Mark Hancock, Robert D. Herbert, and Christopher G. Maher. In this podcast, 2 of the authors debate the issues with Julie Fritz. As Fritz notes, “a big problem we all deal with is the amount of variability that there is in practice.” This podcast debate faces the hard questions head on.