Nelson's positive response1 to the information presented in my perspective paper2 is very reassuring. He has highlighted several important aspects of practice today that support the value of promoting the identity of physical therapists as movement system specialists. Although both the public and other health care professionals acknowledge that movement, particularly as related to sports, can cause injury, the progressive and preventive nature of that injury is not well understood. Many articles published in the non-medical press also have stated that physicians are not performing physical examinations; nonetheless, they are analyzing movement. Yet, as stated in the perspective paper, based on the literature, the orthopedic community is increasingly aware of movement inducing the pain problem rather than a pathoanatomical structure.
As Nelson stated, physical therapists need to become the “go-to” professionals for diagnosing and treating movement-induced tissue injuries. Thus, we have to establish both our diagnostic expertise based on movement analysis of these problems and our treatment effectiveness. I also am convinced that recognition as diagnosticians requires specific labels that are within our scope of practice and that are widely used by the profession. I could not agree more that every therapist must in every way possible convey to the public and to other professionals that there is a movement system and that we are the professionals who have the greatest knowledge of this system.
Footnotes
This letter was posted as a Rapid Response on September 22, 2014. at ptjournal.apta.org.
- © 2014 American Physical Therapy Association
