Tru Dat!
What is “truth” or “knowledge”? Can we have “alternative facts”, my reality vs your reality, or are ideas a simple black and white true or false? As with many things in life, the answer...
The Ethics of Healthcare Advertising
Many physical therapists are frustrated right now. They feel that at one end, the medical establishment is referring less, criticizing the profession for lacking efficacy and having only “low-value” effectiveness. From the other side, we...
Biomechanics Matter Even When They Don’t
I know. The title sounds confusing. Also, biomechanics can be scary to a lot of people. It always made sense to me but I remember the more “humanities oriented” students in physical therapy school...
Hunting for Pain
I work in sports medicine so a lot of what I see is fairly specific: Bones are broken, ligaments are torn, joints get dislocated. But I also see my fair share of “non-specific pain” presentations...
Are You Smarter Than a Pigeon?
Imagine that you are a contestant on a game show. You are standing in front of three identical doors. Behind one of the doors is a new car. Behind the other two doors are...
The False Dichotomy of Open vs Closed Kinetic Chain
Open kinetic chain (OKC) vs closed kinetic chain (CKC); we have heard it all before. There are arguments that OKC is more dangerous (it’s not) or that it puts more stress on the patellofemoral...
Changing Beliefs
Many people in the skeptic community are often frustrated when, after they have laid out so many sound arguments based on clear reasoning, they still can’t seem to change what someone believes. Once you...
Elite Level Placebos
Before we get started, my hope here is that even the hardest placebo skeptics and firmest placebo believers appreciate the points I make in this post and can agree with this way of thinking....
Measuring Outcomes is the Least We Can Do
Whenever an intervention is applied in a medical interaction it results in outcomes. Mind you, not just one outcome, but many. Take surgery for example. There are biological outcomes (new ACL graft, muscle strength,...
The Art of Doing Nothing
It is sunny. And hot. I never knew London could be hot. I was in town teaching a course and had some time to kill before my flight home Monday morning. “But, Erik! We...