Exercise Is Most Important Tool, Says Moffat in 35th McMillan Lecture

Despite remarkable technological advances in past years--and the promise of more to come--no tool is more important to physical therapists than exercise, Marilyn Moffat, PT, PhD, CSCS, FAPTA, told conference goers in her presentation of the 35th McMillan Lecture.

Using a theme of "Braving New Worlds: To Conquer, to Endure," Moffat described an exhaustive list of technological revolutions that could change "many of the traditional patterns of physical therapy service delivery we have known," including those involving heart and lung disease, stroke, diabetes, amputation, fractures, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, neuromuscular dysfunction, and physical therapist examination and intervention. Words such as "stem cell biology," "tissue engineered implants," "gene transfer technologies," and "virtual reality," are increasingly being used, she said. "Changes in disease entities...and in therapeutic interventions will all have an impact on physical therapy practice," she said. "What happens if many of our patients for whom we have provided services are no longer in need of our services?" Physical therapists must be sure, she said, "that the world recognizes us as experts capable of examining and providing intervention."

Exercise, she said, is the most important of those interventions. It is "truly supported by thousands of studies...so evidence-based practice is not a question in this arena." Yet, she challenged, how many PTs are truly experts in exercise, and how much does the world recognize PTs as experts? "It is time to reassert our capabilities in this arena. For if we do not, there are many others who are increasingly offering exercise programs without physical therapist training."

Moffat argued that education programs may have lost sight of what is necessary to make PTs exercise experts, saying that during the transition to doctoral programs, curricula redesigns should have included more skills that "will establish us as exercise experts, regardless of what technology does to the populations that we have served."

Watch for the full text of the 35th McMillan Lecture in the November issue of Physical Therapy.