APTA was again a leading exhibitor at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) annual Legislative Summit, held August 6-9, in Chicago. APTA's sponsorship and participation in the seventh annual NCSL "Walk for Wellness" and the association's physical therapy information booth were prominent features at this year's event. State lawmakers and legislative staff participated in warm-up exercises, led by Patti Naylor, PT, MS, and Chris Egizio, PT, at the "Walk for Wellness," a 5K run/walk to raise awareness of conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, while drawing attention to health disparities that exist in underserved communities.

In addition, conference attendees took the "PT Challenge" at APTA's exhibit booth. Participants who correctly answered quiz questions on direct access, protection for the term "physical therapy," and the detrimental effect of high patient copays for PT services, were entered into a drawing for a Kindle Fire. This and other activities drew numerous state lawmakers from across the country to APTA's booth, where APTA State Government Affairs staff and Illinois Chapter volunteers educated them about direct access to physical therapist services, referral for profit (POPTS), infringement concerns, reimbursement challenges, and other issues important to the physical therapy profession at the state level.

Black people who survive strokes caused by an intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) are more likely than whites to have high blood pressure a year later—increasing their risk of another stroke, according to a study in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.

The study was conducted at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, and included 162 patients (average age 59, 77%, 53%).

ICHs account for only 10% of all strokes but have a death rate of about 40% in the first month, much higher than other types of stroke. High blood pressure is the most important modifiable risk factor associated with bleeding stroke.

However, more than half of patients in the study still had high blood pressure a year after the stroke, despite taking 1 or more antihypertensive medications. There were no significant racial differences 30 days after ICH. But a year later, 63% of blacks had hypertension, compared with 38% of whites, despite taking more blood pressure medications.

The study was too small to identify which factors may explain the racial differences. However, the authors say that factors associated with lower blood pressure at follow-up in multivariable analysis were being married and living in a facility rather than a personal residence.   

The New York Times August 14 issue included APTA's letter to the editor about how physical therapists can help women with vaginal pain. APTA submitted the letter, which also was published online, in response to an August 7 article titled "Persistence Is Key to Treating Sexual Pain."

APTA has launched a new podcast series that will address physical therapists' practice in the realm of telehealth. The first podcast in the series provides an overview of telehealth and focuses on providing integumentary and wound management physical therapy rehabilitation services via telehealth. Harriett B. Loehne, PT, DPT, CWS, FACCWS, the recipient of the 2010 Georgia Partnership for TeleHealth Partner of the Year Award, shares her experiences with 2 telemedicine  systems—Real Time and Store-and-Forward—and how they have helped expand staff's advanced wound management knowledge in a manner that has been cost effective, timely, and efficient for patients and health care providers. 

Alan Chong W. Lee, PT, DPT, PhD, CWS, GCS, associate professor of physical therapy at Mount St Mary's College, hosts the podcast. Loehne currently performs more consults via telemedicine than any other consultant in Georgia.  

Higher intensity and patient engagement in the postacute rehabilitation setting is achievable, resulting in better functional outcomes for older adults, say authors of an article published online in Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.  

Twenty-six older adults admitted from a hospital for postacute rehabilitation in a skilled nursing facility in St Louis, Missouri, participated in a randomized controlled trial of enhanced medical rehabilitation versus standard-of-care rehabilitation. Based on models of motivation and behavior change, enhanced medical rehabilitation is a set of behavioral skills for physical therapists and occupational therapists that increase patient engagement and intensity, with the goal of improving functional outcomes through a patient-directed, interactive approach; increased rehabilitation intensity; and frequent feedback to patients on their effort and progress.

The authors assessed therapy intensity using the time that the patient was active in therapy sessions. Therapy engagement was assessed using the Rehabilitation Participation Scale. Functional and performance outcomes were measured using Barthel Index, gait speed, and 6-minute walk.

Participants randomized to enhanced medical rehabilitation had higher intensity therapy and were more engaged in their rehabilitation sessions. They had more improvement in gait speed (improving from 0.08 to 0.38 m/s versus 0.08 to 0.22 m/s in standard of care) and 6-minute walk (from 73 to 266 feet versus 40 to 94 feet in standard of care), with a trend for better improvement of Barthel Index (+43 points versus +26 points in standard of care), compared with participants randomized to standard-of-care rehabilitation.

APTA member Helen Host, PT, coauthored the article. 

The Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE) is seeking nominations for physical therapist assistant (PTA) on-site reviewers to evaluate accredited programs. While CAPTE always seeks individuals committed to the accreditation and peer review process it embodies, it now is looking specifically for PTA on-site review team members who are APTA members and currently work as PTA clinicians and for higher education administrators (eg, president, provost, vice president of academics or instruction, department or division chair) who are involved with an accredited PTA program at their institution. Interested PTAs can find additional information and requirements in this Call for On-site CAPTE Reviewers.