In an effort to determine a more accurate picture of the physical therapy workforce and aid workforce planning, APTA's Workforce Task Force has developed a model to project supply and demand of physical therapists through 2020. Using the model to manipulate data collected through APTA member surveys, the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy, and federal and other sources, the task force projected a either shortage or surplus of physical therapists in 3 different scenarios. The model includes multiple variables that may impact the future workforce, such as physical therapist attrition rates, the number of full- and part-time personnel, and the percentage of the US population with health care insurance. The model is easily updated to reflect changes in physical therapy education program graduation rates, employment patterns, health care reform, and other factors. APTA will continue to monitor the health care environment, make any necessary modifications to the model, and communicate changes to members and the public.
An explanation of the how the model was developed, a description of the possible scenarios, and graphs illustrating the projections are available on APTA's Physical Therapy Workforce Data page.
Workers with routine back pain at Intel's plant in Oregon are "much happier" these days due to collaboration among Intel, 2 local health care systems, and a health insurer that has reduced the waiting time to see a physical therapist from 19 days to 48 hours, reports USA Today.
In addition to the Intel model, the article highlights the collaborative effort at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle and other partnerships that have formed to tackle the problems of unsatisfactory quality and rising health costs.
According to the article, Intel workers are completing their treatment in 21 days, compared with 52 days in the past. The cost per patient has dropped 10% to 30% due to fewer unnecessary physician visits and diagnostic imaging tests. In addition, the workers are "more satisfied and return to work faster."
Pediatric physical therapists (PTs) who speak Spanish are needed for 2-week minimum assignments in Nicaragua. Housing is available for approximately $50 a night at local guest house. Contact Health Volunteers Overseas' (HVO) program department for additional information.
About one-third of cancer deaths in 2012 will be caused by tobacco use, and another third will be related to overweight or obesity, physical inactivity, and poor nutrition, according to the American Cancer Society's annual report, Cancer Statistics, 2012.
Released yesterday, the report says that death rates continue to decline for lung, colon, breast, and prostate cancers, which are responsible for the most cancer deaths. However, there has been an increase in the past decade of people developing some less common cancers, including pancreas, liver, thyroid, and kidney cancer.
A total of 1,638,910 new cancer cases and 577,190 deaths from cancer are projected to occur in the United States in 2012. Between 1990/1991 and 2008, the most recent year for which data is available, overall death rates decreased by about 23% in men and 15% in women. This translates to more than 1 million cancer deaths that were avoided.
The rates of new cancer cases and cancer deaths vary quite a bit among racial and ethnic groups. For all cancer sites combined, African-American men have a 15% higher rate of new cancer cases and a 33% higher death rate than white men. African-American women have a 6% lower rate of new cancer cases, but a 16% higher death rate than white women. However, in the past decade, African-American men had the most rapid decline in death rates, at 2.4% per year.
A companion piece to the report, Cancer Facts & Figures 2012 highlights cancers with increasing incidence trends. Despite a decline in the rates of the most common cancers, there has been an increase in the rates of several less common cancers: pancreas, liver, thyroid, kidney, melanoma of the skin, esophageal adenocarcinoma (a kind of esophagus cancer), and some kinds of throat cancer associated with HPV (human papillomavirus) infection.