Our Keynote Speakers…

Professor Jill Cook:

Jill Cook is a Professor in musculoskeletal health in the La Trobe Sport and Exercise medicine Research Centre at La Trobe University in Melbourne Australia. Jill’s research areas include sports medicine and tendon injury. After completing her PhD in 2000, she has investigated tendon pathology, treatment options and risk factors for tendon injury. Jill currently supplements her research by conducting a specialist tendon practice and by lecturing and presenting workshops both in Australia and overseas.

Session Title and Description:

Where from and Where to in the Management of Tendinopathy

This session will appraise the history of the management of tendinopathy with a perspective on why many management options fail. Taking this into account we will consider treatment options in the future and examine their likelihood of success. Understanding what underpins the success or failure of treatment options empowers clinicians to better educate and manage their clientele.

 

Professor Alison Rushton:

Alison is Professor and Director of Physical Therapy at Western University. Alison has a strong research profile, with >£2M funding, £11M research centre funding, >140 publications. Her research is at the forefront of understanding assessment and management of musculoskeletal disorders, focused on precision rehabilitation. Alison Chairs the IFOMPT Standards Committee.

Session Title and Description:

Musculoskeletal Advanced Clinical Practice – clinical academic partnership to create future opportunities

The current Advanced Clinical Practice evolution affords a dynamic global landscape that creates an opportunity for musculoskeletal physiotherapists. This session will analyse and evaluate musculoskeletal Advanced Clinical Practice to argue that the way forwards is through academic clinical partnership and political positioning of the speciality of musculoskeletal physiotherapy. High quality clinical reasoning, clinical skills and research evidence are central to this partnership, in contrast to our historical piecemeal approach. Context of practice post COVID-19 will be different and this affords a range of opportunities for musculoskeletal physiotherapists in Canada that we need to take now – ensemble, visons le centre!

 

Dr. Yannick Tousignant-Laflamme:

Dr. Yannick Tousignant-Laflamme, PT, PhD received his degree in physiotherapy from the University of Ottawa (1999) and is now Professor and program chair at the Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada. As a researcher, he is interested in developing and evaluating new ways to improve pain management in rehabilitation.

Session Title and Description:

How can we provide high-value care for our patients? Should we emphasis on diagnosis? Treatment efficacy?… Or aim in the middle?

High-value care is defined as “an intervention in which evidence suggests it confers benefits on patients, or probability of benefit exceeds probable harm, or, more broadly, the added costs of the intervention provide proportional added benefits relative to alternative”. Although efforts have been made to facilitate the delivery of high-value care services in the management of MSK disorders such as low back pain, there is much less focus on the appropriateness and quality of the diagnosis. Recent evidence suggest that the use of a diagnostic framework, based on phenotype and prognosis for example, may play a critical role to address the complexity and heterogeneity of common MSK disorders.