As I look back on 2020, it was a year of personal growth in many ways. This worldwide healthcare crisis required healthcare facilities to make significant adjustments in operations due to COVID-19. Companies providing post-graduate education were also significantly impacted. Physical therapists across the country continued to be interested in quality continuing education with NAIOMT, but with safety in mind, opted to stay home rather than attend a live manual therapy course. This reality necessitated NAIOMT’s administration and faculty to pivot from teaching live to going completely virtual for a prolonged period. 

NAIOMT has always prided itself on an eclectic approach to orthopedic manual therapy. Our greatest strength lies not in our adherence to any one method or system, but in our willingness to embrace multiple theories, techniques, and viewpoints.

Evidence is showing that treatment of the upper cervical spine is beneficial for the treatment of several cervical dysfunctions including cervicogenic headache. Part of the efficient treatment is having the ability to locate key structures including upper cervical musculature. In this video, Terry describes his first manual therapy lesson and how he used that knowledge to apply it to cervical palpation and his everyday practice.

NAIOMT appreciates the intimate connection between breath and health – physical, mental, emotional. As physical therapists, and even more as manual physical therapists, we’re in a great place to help people leverage the breath for performance, health and happiness. A team led by David Deppeler, PT, DSc, OCS, FAAOMPT (a longtime friend, ally and supporter of NAIOMT) has developed a clinician training program through Breathe Your Truth.

In 2021 NAIOMT is expanding our popular accelerated program to include three separate Accelerated CMPT Series: West Coast, East Coast and Virtual. Each option allows you to complete all courses including NAIOMT CMPT certification in just one year. Additional benefits:

“Chess is one of the few arts where composition takes place simultaneously with performance.” - Garry Kasparov

There has been a resurgence in interest in Chess of late, specifically because of the highly acclaimed Netflix miniseries The Queen’s Gambit. This has led me to thinking about chess, physical therapy and advancing excellence in the clinic during the current healthcare environment.

Since PT school we have all been taught to be wary of serious pathology masquerading as musculoskeletal pain. We learn about the red flag, the 5 Ds, and the 3 Ns, etc. In fact, research has presented 163 possible signs and symptoms which can be reported as red flags for spinal pathology alone! There are some who disregard the screening for serious pathology as an unnecessary impediment to proving the intervention they prefer. Also, in their opinion, these signs and symptoms are so rare, they should not be a major concern for your average therapist. I would like to stress that even though these conditions are atypical for most patients, for those who have the pathology, the diagnosis is “devastating and life changing.” I call these patients the one-percenters, because although serious pathology is rare, they deserve appropriate screening.

Screening of the cervical spine for safety prior to performing techniques should be routine for most manual physical therapists. Over my practice in the past 23 years, I have learned many ways to screen structures, particularly the vertebral artery. It has been well established that the vertebral artery is at most risk during the performance of manual therapy to the cervical spine. It is also established that the risk is relatively low measured at 0.75-2.9 incidents per 100,000 people.

To ensure safety, the International Federation of Orthopeadic Manual Therapists (IFOMPT) published a “Framework” for assessing the cervical spine prior to treatment. IFOMPT has recently released its 2020 update entitled, “International Framework for Examination of the Cervical Region for potential of vascular pathologies of the neck prior to Orthopaedic Manual Therapy (OMT) Intervention”. 

Some of the highlights of the article are the following:

Do you treat runners? Are you frustrated with the multiple regions of breakdown and recalcitrant issues they present with? An excellent example is this athlete who came into the clinic for left lateral knee pain after running 16K.

In this video NAIOMT teaching faculty Terry Pratt outlines and demonstrates weight bearing strategies he uses in the clinic for lumbar stabilization.