Trends in Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal OT

It is so easy to get caught in the minutiae of our daily work.

And, sometimes it is incredibly helpful to zoom out and take a big picture look at the incredible changes we have seen in healthcare over the past decades.

The journal article we are looking at this week gives us a bird’s-eye view of the past, present, and future of managing rheumatic and musculoskeletal (MSK) diseases.

In the article you’ll find the same trends that we see in occupational therapy-specific research: a focus on self-management, patient reported outcome measures and patient centeredness. In looking to the future, technology is going to further enable all of these trends.

After the articles orients us to the advances in MSK care, we will be joined by Winnie Tsui, OTL, CHT, MBA, who works as a product manager on the frontiers of technology in this area.  Winnie will help us understand the exciting technology that is ushering the future of care—and the role OT has the potential to play in this exciting new reality.

1. You will be able to identify the general trends related to OT delivery for rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease.

2. You will be able to recognize how new technologies may help fill current gaps in OT care.

• Intro

• Breakdown and analysis of journal article

  • Intro to rheumatic and MSK management

  • Why was this specific article written?

  • Timeline of pharmacological treatment

  • Surgical treatment updates

  • Changes in clinical practice (Hello OT!)

  • The centering of the patient

  • What does the future hold?

  • Conclusions

  • Takeaways for OT practitioners

• Discussion on practical implications for OTs (with Winnie Tsui)

  1. How did you first find OT?

  2. How did you become drawn to rehab technology?

  3. Can you tell me about your current job and how you found it?

  4. What were your initial impressions of our article?

  5. Tell me about the current gaps in care you see in the support for MSK patients?

  6. In the “changes in clinical practice” section, I loved the call-out of the shift to self-management. How do you see technology enabling this shift?

  7. How can new technologies aid in the assessment of MSK disorders?

  8. How do you see technology facilitating multidisciplinary/holistic MSK care?

  9. How do you think the OT workforce needs to change to adapt to the exciting changes you are a part of ushering in?

  10. Is there one thing you want OTs to do differently after listening to this episode?

Primary

• Managing rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases — past, present and future

Additional

• A systematic review of the benefits of occupation-based intervention for patients with upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders

• Beyond the hand and upper extremity: The role of hand therapists in care of people with rheumatic diseases

It is the policy of OT Potential to disclose any financial and non-financial interest the provider or instructor may have in a product or service mentioned during an activity. This is to ensure that the audience is made aware of any bias of the speaker.

OT Potential pays guest speakers an honorarium for their participation, either directly or to an institution of the speaker's choosing at their request. We invite guests whose expertise often comes from practices, programs, or building products in their field. Where a speaker has a financial interest in the subject of a course, we disclose it below so you can weigh it for yourself.

OT Potential's interest in this topic: We have no financial stake in this topic.

Speaker interests: Winnie Tsui is Senior Product Manager at Kaia Health, which sells digital programs for chronic musculoskeletal pain — the category of technology discussed in this course.