Physical therapy is a forward thinking profession. Therapists look to return patients to full function, but always with an eye towards avoiding future injury or complications. Resources that promote those aims are always welcome and Forwardthinkingpt.com is one of those that help improve patient outcomes. According to their website, “Forwardthinkingpt.com is a site specifically designed to promote thinking and improved methodology to Physical Therapists. Our goal is to assist in the delivery of quality, evidence-based reviews to help the average clinician improve their practice.”

In physical therapy, a clinical prediction rule (CPR) is a set of guidelines that combine medical signs, symptoms, and other clinical findings in order to predict the probability of a specific disease or outcome. CPR’s aide physical therapists determine appropriate interventions, treatment plans and diagnosing certain pathological conditions. Forwardthinkingpt.com has a complete set of CPR’ listed by common physical therapy injuries.

Forwardthinkingpt.com includes physical therapy news in addition to content dealing with treating patients and often posts to appropriate outside content. Additionally, they have a complete list analyzing commonly used orthopedic tests, including sensitivity and specificity of each test. These are some great articles to check out:

• Quicker & Sicker: which details the current landscape of the US healthcare system, specifically how more patients are discharged before they are quite “ready.”
• #whythetherapycap: this article looks at the failure to repeal the therapy cap and next steps.
• Perpetuating the Idea that Poor Posture Causes Pain: Stop it! This blog encourages us to look beyond posture products as the answer to help pain and encourages practitioners to continue their research to understand the complexities of pain.
• One Tool I’ve added to my Toolbox: This blog and video look at the usefulness of adding a craniocradle to a physical therapist’s arsenal of “tools.”
• Input: This blog looks at the problem-thinking behind finding the perfect modality to pain and the importance of Clinician-Directed Input & Non-Clinician Directed Input

A physical therapist’s blog for sure, this website is full of relevant information, discussions and direction which most practitioners will find helpful. Bookmark it and check it frequently to stay up to date on physical therapy news and participate in clinical based discussions.