JOSPT Insights

Concussion can loom as an intimidating and daunting challenge—there’s much to consider from headaches to heart rates, vision to vestibular function. Dr Kathryn Schneider is at the front line of clinical practice and research in return-to-sport after concussion. Today, she shares her tips to help the JOSPT community feel confident, not confused, about concussion.

For more, check out the Berlin Concussion in Sport Consensus: https://bit.ly/3wGHosc

Dr Tracy Blake joins us from a pre-Olympics training camp to give us an inside look at how she and her high-performance team have supported Canada’s men’s volleyball team to reach Tokyo in peak condition. Lockdowns, travel bubbles, COVID tests, and long stints living out of a suitcase: the life of a pandemic-era team physical therapist.

Dr Todd Davenport joins Drs Chelsea Cooman and Dan Chapman to share the headlines from the fresh, updated clinical practice guideline (CPG) for lateral ankle sprains and chronic ankle instability. We discuss the advantages of prophylactic bracing, how ankle dorsiflexion influences mechanics, the importance of neurodynamic control, and why ice is no longer #1.

Download the CPG here: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2021.0302

How many times have you reached for the explanation that pain hurts when the brain concludes that the body’s tissues need protecting from an external threat? Specialist clinician and pain educator Laura Rathbone wants to challenge the nociception view of pain and invite clinicians to cultivate a philosophy of pain.

For more, check out these links:

NoiJam blog: https://bit.ly/35RFH02

Philosophers Chatting with Clinicians podcast: https://spoti.fi/3quCL31

The Words Matter Podcast: http://www.wordsmatter-education.com/blog

Why pain experience is not a controlled hallucination of the body: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/18770/

Quality musculoskeletal rehabilitation covers more than whether the athlete can run, jump, and land without pain or swelling. But how comfortable do you designing a rehabilitation program to train the brain as well as the body? Ohio University’s Dustin Grooms explains how to harness neuroscience in your sports injury rehabilitation programs and shares his tips for using the latest virtual reality technology in the clinic. For more help getting started with virtual reality, check out Dustin’s helpful guide here: https://bit.ly/3zBL9Sl

Physical therapists Linda Truong and Christina Le share their evidence-based approach to group rehabilitation for athletes of all ages and abilities. The Functional Agility Strength Training (FAST) program is a tailored approach that balances and promotes the physical and mental sides of recovery after serious injury such as ACL tear. Tune in for tips on how you can set up your own group-based program to support patients to reach their sports participation goals.

Dr Rob Landel boils down the 75 pages of the concussion clinical practice guideline (CPG) into a 25 min podcast episode. He highlights the key points from the CPG—including how to plan and deliver effective assessment (complete with chart), an efficient way to organize clinical information—and offers practical tips on how to educate patients and take irritability into consideration when choosing interventions. Join Chelsea Cooman and Dan Chapman to learn how to best help patients in a multi-disciplinary approach.

Link to the CPG: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2020.0301

More than 10 million people across the world are living with the long-term consequences of COVID-19. But the crushing fatigue experienced by so many with long COVID—the postexertion malaise—is not new. People have lived with postviral illness and postexertion malaise, and they've faced stigma and harm for decades. Sabrina Poirier and Dr Simon Décary are working tirelessly to ensure the mistakes and harms inflicted on so many people living with postviral illness are not repeated for people living with long COVID.

For more, please read the recent JOSPT editorial: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2021.0106

Have you pivoted to telerehabilitation during the coronavirus pandemic? Are you wondering what the digital future of musculoskeletal rehabilitation is? Professor Kim Bennell leads a multidisciplinary team designing, implementing, and studying telehealth for musculoskeletal rehabilitation. Join her for a run-down of the key issues to consider when you’re planning and delivering telerehabilitation and an overview of what the research says about its effectiveness.

Dr Saurab Sharma knows first hand the challenges and opportunities of working across different cultures and in different resource settings. From his work as a physical therapist in Nepal, to his research at University of Otago, and his current work at Neuroscience Research Australia, Saurab is committed to improving the lives of people living with chronic pain. Tune in as Saurab shares his ideas for improving how clinicians and people living with pain can talk about and understand pain.