Physical Therapy Around the Globe

While most physical therapists thrive in jobs within practices, others travel the world to share their skills by teaching local personnel about the physical therapy profession.

As a member of Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO), a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving global health through education and training, Kay Smith Ahern, PT, CHT, traveled to DaNang, Vietnam, and Bhutan, Thimphu, to help increase the knowledge of physical therapists in these countries.

"I believe that each volunteer truly listens to the ideas, dreams, and concerns of the country they are volunteering in," says Ahern. "I feel this helps us understand how globalization is affecting these cultures."

Ahern traveled to the DaNang Orthopedics and Rehabilitation Center in Vietnam to teach a minicourse in hand therapy.

"The teaching is to be sustainable, using supplies at hand," says Ahern. "When I traveled to DaNang, Vietnam, in 2001, I taught differential diagnosis of the shoulder, concentrating on frozen shoulders and rotator-cuff tears. Primarily, with the frozen shoulder, patients have a multitrauma of the extremity. This year, I taught an evaluation and treatment of distal radial fractures. I scoured the toy stores for exercise activities for resulting stiff or sensory-impaired fingers."

The teaching program in Bhutan was a little different than in DaNang. According to Ahern, the physical therapists have the opportunity to choose the subjects that they will teach in their specific fields, and they may incorporate demonstrations, evaluations, and written tests to accompany their lectures.

"The HVO volunteers are the instructors for first- and second-year students," says Ahern. "The students are typically about 20 years old and have had an intense health services study course of 3 to 4 months. There are rotations for pediatrics, acute care in the hospital, and outpatient physical therapy in the clinic, so the students are working under supervision when not in the classroom."

The goal is to share physical therapy rationale and techniques with local physical therapists so that they can assume the roles of health care educator and provider. HVO provides more than 65 clinical education programs in 25 developing countries in North America, South America, Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe; In the five sites where physical therapy programs are offered, volunteers must be fully licensed physical therapists or occupational therapists with a minimum of 2 years of experience. It is preferred that volunteers have previous international experience. However, those without international experience will be considered.

For more information, visit www.hvousa.org.

Rehabilitation Cycle Secures Top Prize

Biomedical engineering graduates from the University of Rochester (New York) won first prize in the school’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center’s Accessible Medical Instrumentation competition for their accessible cycle ergometer. The exercise cycle can be used by people with various disabilities, including vision impairment, obesity, hearing impairment, diabetes, stroke, and Parkinson’s disease. VersaErg Innovations, the winning team, was one of 19 teams from 16 universities across the United States who participated in the competition.

"The most challenging aspect of this project was the range of individuals that had to be considered in our modifications," says Megan Damcott, student at the University of Rochester and VersaErg Innovations design team participant. "While considering the various abilities, age ranges, and weight ranges, our team came up with a lengthy list of needs and wants that we aimed to address. The continuous challenge that we faced was trying to balance the modifications we deemed necessary with the budget that we had and the final retail price we were aiming to meet."

The design of the accessible cycle ergometer, which is suitable for people aged 10–80 years who weigh between 80 and 400 pounds, began with a recumbent cycle, which was modified to fit the team’s expectations. First, the bike’s seat was replaced with a larger seat that swivels to allow someone with very limited mobility to sit down from a standing position. Next, the crossbar connecting the seat pedestal to the cycle was removed to allow the patient to swivel into position without having to lift either leg. The students also installed a large magnifying glass that can be slid over to any part of the display to enlarge it, as well as a voice-recording circuitry that recites the button’s name and function once it is activated.

Once the patient is seated, the cycle is moved into position. The pedals and the display easily glide toward and away from the patient and lock into place, allowing a therapist to move the cycle out of the way should assistance be needed.  

The students went beyond designing the cycle and developed a business plan for how the cycle could be commercially developed, which won them third place in the University’s Forbes Engineering Entrepreneurship competition.

"A lot of thought was put into all different features that make it user-friendly for people who might otherwise have trouble using an exercise bike, says Betsy Nitschke, PT, St Mary’s Hospital Brain Injury Unit, Rochester, NY, who evaluated the student’s design and suggested modifications. "It would be a great bike for a rehabilitation gym, where many different clients with different abilities and disabilities might use the bike."