APTA's inaugural Innovation Summit on March 8—a groundbreaking event that brought together physical therapists, other health care providers, large health systems, and policy makers to discuss the current and future role of physical therapy in integrated models of care—was viewed by more than 1,000 virtual attendees. The virtual attendees participated in the event via a web portal with a virtual lobby and exhibit hall; innovative panels and speakers were livestreamed in a virtual auditorium. More than 40 viewing parties, held primarily at universities and health care facilities, watched the event. Further, the Innovation Summit generated significant social media buzz, with 1,099 tweets posted using the #PTSummit hashtag. 

Onsite attendance was by invitation only. The 150 onsite attendees included 17 APTA physical therapist innovators who were nominated by APTA chapters and sections to attend the event.  

Innovation Summit: Collaborative Care Models was APTA's first interactive virtual event. With strong attendance, engagement from both the onsite and virtual audiences, and robust discussions from the summit panels, APTA believes the summit will further the role of physical therapy in innovative models appearing across the country.

Pictures of the summit are available at www.apta.org/InnovationSummit/.

The Foundation's annual Gala will take place on Thursday, June 27, at the Hilton Salt Lake City Center during APTA's Conference & Exposition. The program will include recognition of the Foundation's 2013 service award recipients and a special tribute to past trustees of the Foundation's Board of Directors. The evening also will include a special celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Marquette Challenge.

Tickets now are available at the following prices: individual tickets ($150), student tickets ($100). Table sponsorships are available for $2,000 each and include 10 individual Gala tickets. Tables can be purchased through J. Spargo or by contacting Erica Sadiq for additional details

The total costs of diagnosed diabetes have risen to $245 billion in 2012 from $174 billion in 2007, when the cost was last examined, says the American Diabetes Association. This figure represents a 41% increase over a 5-year period.

The study, Economic Costs of Diabetes in the US in 2012, includes direct medical costs of $176 billion, which reflects costs for hospital and emergency care, office visits, and medications; and indirect medical costs totaling $69 billion. Indirect costs include absenteeism, reduced productivity, unemployment caused by diabetes-related disability, and lost productivity due to early mortality.

In addition, the study found that:

• Medical expenditures for people with diabetes are 2.3 times higher than for those without diabetes.
• The primary driver of increased costs is the increasing prevalence of diabetes in the US population.
• Despite the introduction of new classes of medication for the treatment of diabetes, antidiabetic agents and diabetes supplies continue to account for only 12% of medical expenditures in both 2007 and 2012.

The research also examined costs along gender, racial and ethnic lines, and included state-by-state data. Key findings include:

• Most of the cost for diabetes care in the US, 62.4%, is provided by government insurance. The rest is paid for by private insurance (34.4%) or by the uninsured (3.2%).
• Total per-capita health expenditures are higher among women than men ($8,331 vs $7,458). Total per-capita health care expenditures are lower among Hispanics ($5,930) and higher among non-Hispanic blacks ($9,540) than among non-Hispanic whites ($8,101).
• The per-capita cost of medical care attributed to diabetes was $6,649 in 2007 and $7,900 in 2012, a 19% increase. 
• Among states, California has the largest population with diabetes and thus the highest costs, at $27.6 billion. Although Florida's total population is fourth among states behind California, Texas, and New York, it is second in costs at $18.9 billion.

The study will be published in the upcoming April issue of Diabetes Care.

In 2011 and 2012, a CSM Review Work Group evaluated roles, responsibilities, and decision-making authority for the development of the Combined Sections Meeting (CSM). Out of that work emerged a recommendation for a CSM Steering Group to provide high-level oversight and guide innovation of the meeting. A 13-member CSM Steering Group has been established, with the initial 10 members selected from the original work group. This call is to identify 3 at-large members to complete the new CSM Steering Group. For more information on the CSM Steering Group, contact Dena Kilgore.

The deadline for this call is April 1. Interested APTA members should respond to the call by completing a volunteer interest profile found on the Volunteer Interest Pool webpage. The first step is creating a profile for service. After submitting the profile, to be considered for current volunteer opportunities, members must then access the "current opportunities for service page," select "CSM Steering Group," and respond to the questions specific to the group.

This month's PTJ includesarticles on a broad variety of topics that have immediate clinical relevance, such as "People With Stroke Who Fail an Obstacle Crossing Task Have a Higher Incidence of Falls and Utilize Different Gait Patterns Compared With People Who Pass the Task" and "The STarT Back Screening Tool and Individual Psychological Measures: Evaluation of Prognostic Capabilities for Low Back Pain Clinical Outcomes in Outpatient Physical Therapy Settings." Hear Editor in Chief Rebecca Craik, PT, PhD, FAPTA, summarize these and other articles in the March Craikcast.

Today, APTA participated in the Brain Injury Awareness Fair as part of the 12th annual Brain Injury Awareness Day on Capitol Hill. These events aim to educate members of Congress and their staff on the full range of effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI), the challenges and recoveries of people living with brain injury, and the services and supports that are available to them.

Reps Bill Pascrell Jr (D-NJ) and Thomas J. Rooney (R-FL), cochairs of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force, held a press conference to announce legislation advancing the treatment and prevention of TBIs. 

An afternoon panel discussion titled "Promoting Brain Injury Awareness through Public/Private Partnerships" featured COL Jamie B.Grimes, MD, MC, national director, Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center; Sara Patterson, associate director of policy, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Katie Clarke Adamson, director of health partnerships and policy, YMCA of America; Jeff Miller, chief security officer, National Football League;  Roland Gerritsen van der Hoop, chief medical officer, BHR Pharma, and  Ralph Ibson, national policy director, Wounded Warrior Project.

Check out APTA's TBI webpage for advocacy and education resources on TBI and concussion. 

In a 2-step trial conducted in the United Kingdom, providing active management consultation for patients with acute whiplash injury in emergency departments (ED) did not show additional benefit compared with usual care consultations, say authors of an article published in February in The Lancet. Physical therapy resulted in a modest acceleration to early recovery of persisting symptoms but was not cost effective from the National Health Service's (NHS) perspective. Usual consultations in EDs and a single physical therapy advice session for persistent symptoms are recommended, the authors add. 

Step 1 was a pragmatic, cluster randomized trial of 12 NHS Trust hospitals including 15 EDs that treated patients with acute whiplash associated disorder of grades I-III. The hospitals were randomized by clusters to either active management or usual care consultations. In step 2, the researchers used a nested individually randomized trial. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either a package of up to 6 physical therapy sessions or a single physical therapy advice session. Randomization in Step 2 was stratified by the center. Investigator-masked outcomes were obtained at 4, 8, and 12 months. The primary outcome was the Neck Disability Index (NDI). Analysis was intention to treat, and included an economic evaluation.

In step 1, 12 NHS Trusts were randomized, and 3,851 of 6,952 eligible patients agreed to participate (1,598 patients were assigned to usual care and 2,253 patients were assigned to active management). Of the 3,851 eligible patients, 2,704 (70%) provided data at 12 months. NDI score did not differ between active management and usual care consultations (difference at 12 months 0.5).

In step 2, 599 patients were randomly assigned to receive either a single physical therapy advice session (299 patients) or 6 physical therapy sessions (300 patients); 479 (80%) patients provided data at 12 months. At 4 months, patients who received physical therapy showed a modest benefit compared with advice (NDI difference -3.7, -6.1 to -1.3), but not at 8 or 12 months. Active management consultations and physical therapy were more expensive than usual care and a single advice session. No treatment-related serious adverse events or deaths were noted.

APTA's new carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) webpage contains news, updates, and links to a variety of resources on these drug-resistant bacteria.

As reported earlier this week in News Now, physical therapists and physical therapist assistants play an important role in protecting patients from CRE. CRE have high mortality rates, killing 1 in 2 patients who get bloodstream infections from them. Additionally, CRE easily transfer their antibiotic resistance to other bacteria. CRE are usually transmitted person-to-person, often on the hands of health care workers. Currently, almost all CRE infections occur in people receiving significant medical care. However, their ability to spread and their resistance raises the concern that potentially untreatable infections could appear in otherwise healthy people, including health care providers.

Jacquelin Perry, MD, a physical therapist who trained at Walter Reed Army Hospital (1940-1941) and practiced in the US Army for 5 years, died at her home in Downey, California, on Monday at age 94.

Perry graduated from the University of California, San Francisco, in 1950 as a physician and became board certified as an orthopedic surgeon in 1958. At Ranchos Los Amigos, she was chief of the Pathokinesiology Service for 30 years.

She published hundreds of articles and received APTA's Golden Pen Award and the Helen

J. Hislop Award for Outstanding Contributions to Professional Literature. She was an honorary

lifetime member of APTA. She also received the Orthopaedic Section's Steven J. Rose Excellence in Research Award. 

Throughout her career Perry advocated for the profession of physical therapy and worked closely with numerous physical therapists.

"The name Perry and the word movement are almost synonymous—we hear 'Perry,' and we think analysis of normal and abnormal movement of the trunk, upper extremity, and lower extremity and the restoration of movement through surgery, bracing, electrical stimulation, and exercise," Rebecca L. Craik, PT, PhD, FAPTA, wrote in a 2010 PTJ editorial.