Marketable Skill Sets...

What I have managed to do: Take a page that has 350+ check boxes to quantify mobility assessment and rebuild it from the ground up in PAXscript into 5 functional-punch-in-the-numbers outcomes measures, AND 2 smart grids that step you through documenting the transfer if you were writing it out by hand (and faster, to boot). I've managed to build this on an iPad friendly screen. And for good measure, I'm programming a box to display a "narrative" of the documented findings so you don't have to do it yourself after you enter your data. BOOM. Marketable skill set.

My next project is gait analysis.


PT Complaint:   Unusable software.

Objective Findings:

Treatment:

More scripts.  Databases, Fields, and Subtables created.  Scripts written around those tables.

Behold: I call it Mobility Redux!  The auto-narrative isn't finished yet, but it will be.  Happy to give anyone using PTAdvantage.  I don't THINK that it is proprietary.  Would love ideas for the layout - as I am aesthetically-impaired.

Plan:  Finish narrative code, build gait analysis form.  

Inter-professional pissing contest.

First and last time I'll ever engage in this conversation (I hope).


My friend @RGWooderson, sent me a link to a post by a physical therapist who has been in the profession a long time, and done a lot of cool stuff. You can read his CV on his website. He has been the CRO: Chief Revolutionary Officer since 2011 for a company he started - The Smart Life Project. Thank you Allen, for your insight into damned future of our profession. But who are you mad at? All I did was start applying to PT schools in 2008/2009.


You can read his post here: Was the DPT The Right Direction?


Here's the problem I have with it, more than anything. We're, as a profession, trying to elevate ourselves in the public's eyes and through legislation. Blog posts like his only hurt our profession. While he is spending an evening trying to start an interprofessional pissing contest (which I'm sure won't interest people in his "institute"), others among us will be working together to move forward.


Thomas Kuhn wrote a great book int he 60's and coined the term paradigm shift, discussing the history of science and how exactly competing ideologies came about, and came to die in the face of new world views. He quoted Max Plank (long story) in the book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, saying "a new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."


The conversation over the presence of DPT in the profession ended a while ago (whenever, I don't know). Taking time away to engage people who have already made up their mind about a topic isn't going to do anything but stir the professional pot, if you will. He's an old guy. He's treated 10,000 patients! He, and the rest like him, will be out of the profession and dead before I can even afford to retire.


Have a great week.


-d

El mejor dia de me vida!

Those of you following me here may or may not know that I've graduated!  As of May 6th 2012 you may call me Denver Lancaster, Doctor of Physical Therapy.  Licensure exam scheduled for July 31st.  

 I thought about taking this time to reflect on 33 months of balls-out academic struggle and tom foolery.  Instead, I think I might just close the book on this one, and show off some fun pictures.

 

There was a party after graduation at Red Rocks!  It didn't hit me until I was leaving...  I spent more than a full time job's worth of hours every single week for 33 months with all of my classmates.  Got to know families, significant others.  Made a lot of friends.  Wasn't thinking, right at that moment, that I will never  be in the same place with all of them again.  Bitter-sweet. :)  Maybe it still hasn't hit me.  It was a good send off!  Parents got to meet friends, faculty.  I ate myself sick.

Carmen came, as well, and we posed for some photos.  Red Rocks is an amazing place.  I will have to make a point of going down there more frequently after I start working and making money.

I'd like to send out a great big generic thank you to everyone who helped me through this - especially family, and good friends (new and old), the counseling center, and modern pharmaceuticals. Thank you.

No, I'm NOT Reading Journal Articles on My Last Academic Xmas Break. . .

We don't necessarily need new evidence to support abandoning outdated standards. There is a need for more reflective practicing clinicians who don't accept the notion of having"arrived" in their clinical expertise. ONGOING and purposeful reflection of skills and outcomes is why I choose a DPT. I think the abstract hints at this. I'm adding the rest of the scooter to my kindle reading list. http://ping.fm/9rf5X

John, Denver, and a Turkey (or Denver, John?)

Picture of John and I with the finished turkey - good shot for relative size of the bird compared to John an I.