April 2010

The sponsorship, exhibition and advertising prospectus is now available for download on the WCPT website. If you are aware of any company who may be interested in being involved in WCPT’s forthcoming Congress please forward this e-update to them.

The prospectus may be downloaded at www.wcpt.org/congress/exhibition. For further information please contact sattwood@wcpt.org.

WCPT would like to thank Educata for making the following lecture and chapter freely available via our website at www.wcpt.org/node/29540.

Free lecture: The Physical Therapist as Work Injury Prevention Consultant by Lauren Hebert PT, DPT, OCS.
The course teaches the therapist how to build a consulting practice advising and training companies to avoid workplace injuries, from repetitive-motion ones (like carpal tunnel syndrome) to those related to the mechanics of the workplace. This offer is valid through May to 1 June 2010. Go to www.wcpt.org/node/29540 for more details.

Free chapter on running: from the recently released Gait Analysis: Normal and Pathological Function, Second Edition by Drs. Jacquelin Perry and Judith M. Burnfield, published by SLACK, inc.
The chapter describes the terminology and timing of the running phases, and the ROM and muscle activation patterns in the lower extremity while running, followed by a description of the pressures borne by the foot. These discussions focus on the “training pace” of recreational runners (approximately a 6.5-minute mile) in order to offer the widest applicability to the clinician. Once the mechanics of the training pace are discussed, then the relative differences to faster and slower paces will be introduced. To download go to www.wcpt.org/node/29540.

The International Scientific Committee (ISC) is now recruiting potential reviewers of platform and poster abstracts submitted for possible presentation at World Physical Therapy 2011.

The number of abstracts sent to reviewers will depend on their area of expertise and the number of submissions received, however, it is anticipated that reviewers will receive no more than 10.

The review process will begin on 1 October 2010 and all reviews must be completed by 30 November 2010.

If you are interested in acting as an abstract reviewer please complete the online questionnaire at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YRLH5KV by 30 June 2010.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently published Measuring Health and Disability: Manual for WHO Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS 2.0). It is based on the International Classification of Functioning (ICF) and will be of interest to public health workers and rehabilitation workers working in outcome research and clinical trials. Further details on the publication and an order form may be accessed at http://apps.who.int/bookorders/anglais/detart1.jsp?codcch=748.

In WHO's new Multidrug and Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis: 2010 Global Report on Surveillance and Response, it is estimated that 440,000 people had MDR-TB worldwide in 2008 and that a third of them died. According to WHO, drug-resistant tuberculosis is now at record levels. In some areas of the world, one in four people with tuberculosis (TB) becomes ill with a form of the disease that can no longer be treated with standard drugs regimens. Read the full report and access related papers and press release.

The WHO North America Collaborating Centre for ICF will hold its 2010 conference in Bethesda, Maryland on 23-24 June. The NACC has also organised  a series of web seminars to be held on 8, 9 and 10 June 2010. Further details may be accessed via their newsletter at www.cdc.gov/nchs/icd/icf_newsletters_10.htm.

You may also use the forum on the WCPT website, www.wcpt.org/smfforum, to share information about your work on ICF to a growing community of interested physical therapists.

The launch of the Positive Practice Environments (PPE) Campaign website was announced on the 8 April 2010 by campaign partners – the International Council of Nurses, International Hospital Federation, International Pharmaceutical Federation, World Confederation for Physical Therapy, FDI World Dental Federation and the World Medical Association.

The site offers access to PPE resources, tools and events. Visit www.ppecampaign.org for information on how to learn and share expertise to improve practice environments.

The PPE Campaign aims to improve work environments, recruitment and retention of health professionals, and quality of health services through the development of positive practice environments.  PPE activities aim to raise awareness, identify good practice, develop tools for managers and health professionals and carry out concrete national demonstration projects to improve practice environments. Campaign activities are already underway in Morocco, Uganda and Zambia. The PPE Campaign is open to all countries, health organisations and health disciplines.

The Bone & Joint Decade (BJD) was set to run for the period 2000 – 2010. However, at the BJD World Network Conference in October, 2009, there was unanimous support for continuing BJD as a not-for-profit organisation and the amended Articles of Organization of “The Bone and Joint Decades” were ratified.

For further details about the BJD please go to www.boneandjointdecade.org/.