"Physical therapy is not a subspecialty of the medical profession and physical therapists are not medical doctors; we are a separate profession that provides a unique service that physicians are unable and untrained to provide."

Letter to the AMA from the APTA, Dec 2009

Monday, March 30, 2009

Physical therapy in the Hollywood spotlight


Let's see if the 'bright lights' shine favorably on physical therapy.

Queen Latifah is signing on to play in a Hollywood movie about a physical therapist falling in love.

Queen Latifah has played some authoritative roles: Matron "Mama" Morton in 'Chicago' and Charlene Morton in 'Bringing Down the House'.

She seems likely to bring a strong voice to the role of a physical therapist helping to rehabilitate a basketball player.

The fact that the basketball player is her patient raises some concerns.

Let's hope the 'Cinderella tale' is a serious affair, and not a Tinseltown romp, where Queen Latifah's character considers carefully her professional responsibilities and legal liabilities when involving herself romantically with a patient.

Can we trust Hollywood?

C'mon!

What do you think?

Probably, physical therapists could organize a letter writing campaign to the producers of the new Queen Latifah movie (set to begin in May 2009) that would raise the issue of physical therapists professional responsibility.

Let's shine a bright light of our own in making this movie.

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Tim Richardson, PT owns a private practice at Medical Arts Rehabilitation, Inc in Palmetto, Florida. The clinic website is at MedicalArtsRehab.com.

Bulletproof Expert Systems: Clinical Decision Support for Physical Therapists in the Outpatient Setting is a manager's workbook with stories, checklists, charts, graphs, tables, and templates describing how you can use paper-based or computerized tools to improve your clinic's Medicare compliance, process adherence and patient outcomes.

Tim has implemented a computerized Clinical Decision Support (CDS) system in his clinic since 2006 that serves as a Reminder, Alerting, Prompting and Predicting CDS using evidence-based tests and measures.

Tim can be reached at
TimRichPT@BulletproofPT.com .

"Make Decisions like Doctors"


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Consistent with the American Physical Therapy Association Vision Statement for Physical Therapy 2020, the American Physical Therapy Association supports exclusive physical therapist ownership and operation of physical therapy services.