Abstract
US military physical therapists have a proud history of providing medical care during operational deployments ranging from war to complex humanitarian emergencies. Regardless of austerity of environment or intensity of hostility, US military physical therapists serve as autonomous providers, evaluating and treating service members with and without physician referral. This perspective article suggests that the versatility of US military physical therapist practice enables them not only to diagnose musculoskeletal injuries but also to provide a wide range of definitive care and rehabilitation, reducing the need for costly evacuation. War is not sport, but the delivery of skilled musculoskeletal physical therapy services as close to the point of injury as possible parallels the sports medicine model for on- or near-field practice. This model that mixes direct access with near-immediate access enhances outcomes, reduces costs, and allows other health care team members to work at the highest levels of their licensure.
Footnotes
Dr Moore, Dr Goffar, Dr Teyhen, Dr Pendergrass, and Dr Childs provided concept/idea/research design. Dr Moore, Dr Goffar, Dr Teyhen, Dr Childs, and Dr Ficke provided writing. Dr Moore, Dr Teyhen, and Dr Pendergrass provided data collection. Dr Moore and Dr Childs provided data analysis. Dr Moore provided project management. Dr Pendergrass, Dr Childs, and Dr Ficke provided consultation (including review of manuscript after submission).
Preliminary findings of this work were presented at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine; June 2–5, 2010; Baltimore, Maryland. An abstract presentation of the work was given at the Combined Sections Meeting of the American Physical Therapy Association; January 21–24, 2013; San Diego, California.
- Received March 28, 2012.
- Accepted April 25, 2013.
- © 2013 American Physical Therapy Association
Issue highlights
