Traditional Healthcare Practice vs. The Human-Centered Healthcare Approach in Physical Therapy
Putting People Before Profits Through Human-Centered Design Healthcare
Have you ever been to a medical practitioner, physician, or physical therapist, had your pain treated, and then found a short while later that it has resurfaced? Even worse than before you had the treatment?
If this sounds like you, then you’re not alone. In the study titled ‘Recurrence of low back pain is common’ published in the Journal of Physiotherapy, it was found that up to 69% of those who had recovered from lower back pain had a recurrence within 12 months. Those who had suffered two or more previous episodes of lower back pain were most likely to experience further episodes.
Do you know what these pain sufferers are really suffering from? The traditional approach to healthcare practice.
The problem with the traditional healthcare approach
The traditional approach to healthcare is for a medical exam to be conducted, with the objective of establishing an injury or condition. Once the reason for your pain is established, treatment is given to relieve that pain, and fix the injury.
“What’s wrong with this?”
Let’s put it this way. If you’re suffering from tiredness, and tell your doctor that you just cannot sleep a whole night, the condition you will be treated for is insomnia. You’ll be given tablets to help you sleep, and you’ll find they work in the short term.
After a few weeks, and feeling fully refreshed, you stop taking those sleeping pills. But, within a few days, you start waking up halfway through the night again. So, you return to pill-popping. Because that’s the solution, right?
Wrong!
What your physician has done is treat the condition, and ignored the cause. Best practice has moved on in the last 15 years. Traditional healthcare practice has failed to keep up.
This conventional approach to pain is outdated. And, as you can see, it implements practices (such as an MRI scan or X-ray, followed by treatment based upon these findings) that are often more harmful than helpful (we estimate in about 99% of cases). Yet, these practices continue in abundance and continue to be the most prescribed healthcare treatments.
This isn’t only our conclusion. As long ago as 2013, The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published research describing the worsening trends in the management and treatment of back pain. Researchers found that “management of back pain has relied increasingly on guideline discordant care.” While physical therapy should be the first line of defense, it’s only prescribed in around 10% of cases – a ratio that has barely changed in decades.
Human-centered design in healthcare
Let’s return to your insomnia. You’re now at risk of getting hooked on sleeping pills.
Shouldn’t the physician wish to learn about the cause of your sleepless nights? Does your mattress need replacing? Are you on your cellphone until just before you roll over to try to sleep? Is the temperature in your bedroom inadequately regulated? And a bunch more questions should be asked.
It’s important to relieve the pain (though pain isn’t necessarily bad – we know, it sounds kind of counterintuitive, and it is: ask us why and we’ll explain!), but it is critical to find the cause of the pain and treat that. This is how you become pain-free in the long term.
Ultimately, healthcare professionals should be taking a human-centered approach.
For example, the pain that you are experiencing – whether that pain is in the lower back, runner’s knee, or a host of other injuries – is related to a variety of factors. A few simple examples include:
It could be related to quad strength
Working out too much too soon after injury
A lack of mobility
Lifestyle, or a change in lifestyle
An acute injury from which full recovery has not been achieved
There are many factors associated with the cause of pain, and they are all related.
As our founder, Ryan Chow says, “No medical diagnosis, especially of muscular and skeletal pain, can really help with decision-making or clinical outcomes. Pain and injury are always contextual. It’s always relative to someone’s life.”
100 different people with back pain will receive the same diagnosis after a medical examination. It’s only when you look deeper into all other potential factors, and associate these with the actual cause of the pain, that you realize there may be 100 different solutions for a long-term painless life.
Putting people above profits
We’re bucking the trend. We know that most people who have pain and injury are dealing with chronic pain and chronic diseases – but this doesn’t mean things are really broken.
“They are products of lifestyle, behavior, and misunderstanding of the individual’s health situation,” says Ryan. “We’re trying to change the narrative. We’re trying to educate people on what they need, the best practices, and to get people better outcomes.”
Ryan’s personal history and his healthcare experience, combined with his unquenchable thirst for knowledge and connections with some of the most respected researchers and healthcare practitioners in the world, helped him see the “huge disconnect between what we know and what we’re actually doing.”
This realization prompted Ryan to start Reload PT to be able to implement modern, research-led practices that deliver far-improved outcomes by taking a human-centered approach and putting people before profits:
“The (physical) problems that we deal with are problems that have developed over a long period of time. They can’t simply be undone in a short amount of time. It just doesn’t work that way.”
The Reload approach is to create a community, setting up expectations about how and when we can support clients, what follow-ups are needed, who we can involve and leverage, and who we can speak to and collaborate with to provide ongoing support, then what other things can be done.
“As an example, we know that prolonged physical activity is one way to limit recurrent back pain (and that’s evidence-based advice). We’ve created things like small group classes, programming, and virtual options to deliver better access, better care, and fewer barriers to participation. This means we can support people with what the evidence says they need,” Ryan explains.
This long-term approach completely changes the healthcare dynamic. Instead of the ‘come see me when you need me’ approach, we put people over profits. We invest in our clients’ well-being and good physical health in a long-term, connected relationship.
The traditional healthcare industry is bogged down in admin, worries about insurance, and paperwork. It’s profits before people.
Our approach turns the traditional approach, in which the last person in the decision-making process is the client, on its head. For us, it will always be people before profits.
As a client, you’ll see this from our very first meeting. We don’t take 15 minutes or less to diagnose and prescribe treatment. You won’t have the following conversation with Reload PT:
Doctor: “You’ve damaged your knee.”
Patient: “Yep, I know, but why?”
Doctor: “Because you fell over.”
Patient: “That’s how I damaged it. What I want to know is why?”
Doctor: “Rest up for a while. Keep your weight off your feet. Don’t put any strain on your knees. Take these pills.”
Patient: “Can you tell me why I damaged my knee, so I don’t do so again? I can’t stand this pain.”
Doctor: “Next, please!”
Is it time for you to be treated as the individual you are? Do you want to develop a pain-free life, and not pay for the consequences of short-term pain relief?
Book an appointment to start with a comprehensive 90-minute physical therapy body evaluation.
