Saturday, May 3 (11:00-11:30)
Educational/Professional Breakout Sessions
Canadian Physiotherapists – We Have a Whiplash Injury Management Problem: Time to Broaden Our Horizons
– Dr. Ashley Smith
Over the last two decades, seven methodologically rigorous trials in chronic whiplash-associated disorders (WAD), utilizing traditional conservative therapy principles (education, exercise therapy, manual therapy) have failed to provide clinically significant reductions in pain and disability.
Our specialist multidisciplinary clinic has collected a broad range of outcome measures in over 800 people with chronic WAD. Seven publications have demonstrated the association between measures of health outcomes and physical activity/sedentary behaviour; reward processing; psychological manifestations; prior general health status; sleep; diagnostic imaging/medication intake post-whiplash, and autonomic nervous system function. We are also investigating the association between underlying nociception (as captured with diagnostic blocks), pain processing (presure pain thresholds) and their association with each of the above clinical features. Separately, our clinic has focussed on various therapeutic options to modulate clinical features. We will present our RCT and 12-month published case series outcomes investigating orthobiological medicine in chronic WAD, and a recent trial demonstrating the efficacy of non invasive brain stimulation in modulating cervicogenic headache.
In summary, this presentation will provide a comprehensive overview of clinical features associated with chronic WAD, their association with different health outcomes and current evidence-informed management of these features, outside of traditional conservative practices of care.
Dr. Ashley Smith
Ashley has appointments with the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Calgary and McMaster University School of Rehabilitation Science. Ashley has over 50 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, primarily investigating pain mechanisms, whiplash-associated disorders and orthobiologics. Ashley’s ongoing postdoctoral clinical research studies investigate how clinical manifestations of WAD can be modulated, both interventionally and via endogenous analgesia. He is also a member of the Cochrane Musculoskeletal group, investigating the role of spinal injections in people with chronic neck and low back pain. Ashley’s clinical responsibilities revolve around co-ordinating evidencebased inter- and multi-disciplinary care of people with chronic musculoskeletal pain as
Director of Rehabilitation and Research at Vivo Cura Health. He is also a tireless patient advocate and volunteers with FAIR Alberta to advocate for the rights of Albertans injured in motor vehicle collisions and was honored to be the first non-lawyer to be recognized for
community advocacy efforts on behalf of those people.
Can we improve the uptake of education and exercise-therapy in people with knee osteoarthritis?
– Dr. Allison Ezzat
- Learning objectives:
Understand the evidence supporting education and exercise-therapy for management of knee osteoarthritis - Demonstrate an awareness of the multi-level barriers and facilitators that influence access to first line care for people with knee osteoarthritis
- Be exposed to three evidence-based strategies that were implemented and evaluated to improve access to first line care for people with knee osteoarthritis
- Know how to access a co-designed web-based toolkit to support their clinical management of knee osteoarthritis
Methods: This session will share the main findings from 3 implementation projects: 1) MOTION: evaluates the effect of optimizing access to first line care on desire to undergo knee replacement surgery for people with knee osteoarthritis wait listed for orthopedic consultation in public hospital setting; 2) SUPERVISE: examines the effects of self-directed versus supervised exercise program combined with co-designed digitally supported patient education (MYKNEE) for knee osteoarthritis; 3) REFER: co-develops and evaluates a behaviour change
intervention to increase General Practitioner referral of people with osteoarthritis to community-based first line care.
Conclusion: This session will provide physiotherapists with the knowledge and confidence to be leaders in delivering and supporting people with knee osteoarthritis to access quality first line care.
Dr. Allison Ezzat
Dr. Allison Ezzat is a physiotherapist and implementation scientist at the BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, University of British Columbia (UBC). Her research applies implementation science methodologies to advance the primary prevention of knee injuries in adolescents in real-world settings. She has a focus on reducing gender disparity for girls/women in injury risk and decreasing the long-term injury burden (e.g., knee osteoarthritis). She is a Fellow in the Canadian Academy of Manual and Musculoskeletal Physical Therapists (FCAMPT) and has practiced clinically throughout her academic training specializing in management of knee injuries across the lifespan.
Uncertainty in Clinical Practice Or – How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Angst
– Nathaniel Hers and Steve Young
Come learn how uncertainty, although rarely directly expressed, is present in every clinical encounter in a multitude of ways. Traditional clinical practice has taught us that we take a detailed patient history with some “Special Questions”, perform an objective examination that includes “Special Tests” and come up with an accurate diagnosis that leads to a specific intervention that will remedy the patient’s problem. This interactive presentation will explore and identify the different forms of uncertainty experienced in clinical practice and identify why it is important and how it can be used to improve our clinical decision making, therapeutic alliance and even our job satisfaction. The outcome of this presentation hopes to support clinicians to embrace and be comfortable with clinical uncertainty – to be able to understand the limitations of our assessments, and then how to move forward amidst uncertainty with confidence. The acceptance of uncertainty moves us from an approach that attempts to identify “What,” to one that focuses on the “Why and how”. This presentation will review the evidence supporting the use of a broader clinical lens that will accept uncertainty as a common clinical phenomena that allows for a more patient-centred and biopsychosocially driven approach.
Nathaniel Hers
Nathan graduated from the University of British Columbia’s Master of Physical Therapy program in 2015, and has taken his Transitional Doctorate of Physical Therapy through Evidence in Motion. Nathan also worked as the Education Manager for the Physiotherapy Associated of British Columbia for 4 years – helping coordinate education for physiotherapists across the province. He is an orthopaedic physiotherapist primarily working with osteoarthritis, concussion and persistent pain populations.
Nathan enjoys pondering big questions in physiotherapy and is happiest when he is learning new things. He often thinks about how we can leverage research to help people achieve their goals.
Steve Young
Steve is a graduate Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Health Science in Physiotherapy from McMaster University in 1999, and he later earned a Transitional Doctorate of Physical Therapy from the Evidence in Motion Institute of Health Professionals in 2015. With over two decades of experience as a physiotherapist, he has managed diverse orthopaedic caseloads and led rehabilitation teams specializing in complex persistent pain.
In addition to his clinical practice, Steve is actively involved in advancing the field of physiotherapy through education and research. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor at UBC, and also is one of the founders of AMP Healthcare Education where Steve organizes and teaches continuing education courses. Steve’s contributions to the field have been recognized with prestigious awards, including the PABC Peter Huijbregts Memorial Award in 2024 and the Physical Therapy Association Award of Clinical Excellence in 2014.
Using Social Media Ethically and Effectively in Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Practice
– Natalie Grant and Dr. Clare Ardern
Social Media (SoMe) is increasingly used by the public as a source of health information and support, an educational resource for healthcare professionals, a means of connecting with colleagues, promoting one’s services and developing one’s professional identity. SoMe can also be a source of misinformation and disinformation, with algorithms that may enhance the “echo chamber” effect by serving content based on pastviewing history and targeted keywords.
We endeavour to frame the ever-evolving SoMe landscape through the following questions designed to engage the audience in a knowledge-sharing exercise:
-What counts as ‘social’ media?
-How do users recognize quality content on social media?
-How do users ethically promote and produce content on social media?
-How do educators teach and clinicians practice evidence-based care in the age of social media?
In break-out groups, symposium participants and facilitators will explore the ways in which patients, clinicians,
educators and researchers can and do interact with various SoMe platforms (including Instagram, X (Twitter),
Instagram, Reddit) and alternatives like blogs, podcasts and infographics. Participants will discuss how different
information sources relate to the different contexts and motivations physiotherapists may have for engaging with
SoMe, and explore ways of evaluating the trustworthiness of health information.
Natalie Grant
Natalie Grant is a member of CAMPT and an Assistant Professor of Teaching in UBC’s Department of Physical Therapy where she has been teaching in the musculoskeletalstream of the Master of Physical Therapy program for over a decade. As the Academic SiteLead for the MPT Fraser Valley cohort, her scholarly work includes the role of values-basedleadership in fostering relationships and community within the learning environment, andunderstanding the critical factors that support success in a distributed education setting.
Dr Clare Ardern
Clare is an Australian-trained physiotherapist and Assistant Professor at UBC’sDepartment of Physical Therapy where she teaches evidence-based physiotherapy practice with a health equity focus. For over a decade she has led international researchprogrammes in Australia, Qatar, Sweden and Canada to develop guidelines andinterventions for managing musculoskeletal conditions and sports injuries. Her interdisciplinary research team of physiotherapists, computer scientists, knowledge mobilisation specialists and patient partners work together to co-design, implement and evaluate new approaches to primary care including digital solutions for musculoskeletal conditions. Clare has served the global musculoskeletal rehabilitation community as Editorin-Chief of the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy (JOSPT) since 2018, and hosts the weekly JOSPT Insights podcast, which is downloaded more than 35,000 times each month.
As a researcher and educator, and in her journal leadership role, Clare uses different approaches to creating research impact, and mobilising knowledge. She has a fair idea of what works (and what doesn’t), and enjoys finding new ways to reach people with trustworthy information.