PTNow, the association's flagship site for evidence-based practice resources, continues to expand in ways that help PTs and PTAs easily access the evidence they need in just a few clicks. If you haven't visited the site lately, check it out soon. Here's a quick take on the latest additions to the site. [Editor's note: member login required to access the resources listed here.]
Recently added clinical practice guidelines
Exercise and Physical Activity
- Canadian Guidelines for Physical Activity Throughout Pregnancy
- Clinical Guideline and Recommendations on Pre-Operative Exercise Training in Patients Awaiting Major Non-Cardiac Surgery
Pain
- Non-Specific Low Back Pain
- Non-Pharmacological Management of Persistent Headaches Association with Neck Pain: A Clinical Practice Guideline From the Ontario Protocol for Traffic Injury Management (OPTIMa) Collaboration
- Rheumatoid Arthritis in Adults: Management
Neurological conditions
- Cerebral Palsy in Adults
- Dementia: Assessment, Management, and Support for People Living With Dementia and Their Carers
- Practice Guideline Update Recommendations Summary: Disorders of Consciousness
Recently added Cochrane Systematic Reviews
Cochrane reviews provide some of the most reliable information on evidence-based health care—thoroughly researched, carefully evaluated, and presented in a way that makes it easy to understand the effects of interventions on rehabilitation, treatment, and prevention.
Recently, PTNow added the following 15 Cochrane systematic reviews to the more than 600 reviews already posted:
Pelvic health
- Interventions for treating urinary incontinence after stroke in adults
- Yoga for treating urinary incontinence in women
Exercise
- Exercise for preventing falls in older people living in the community
- Aerobic physical exercise for adult patients with hematological malignancies
- Exercise training for advanced lung cancer
- Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation for adult patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator
- Physical exercise training for type 3 spinal muscular atrophy
Cardiopulmonary
- Positive end-expiratory pressure for preterm infants requiring conventional mechanical ventilation for respiratory distress syndrome or bronchopulmonary dysplasia
- Non-invasive positive pressure ventilation for prevention of complications after pulmonary resection in lung cancer patients
- Interventions to support return to work for people with coronary heart disease
- School-based self-management interventions for asthma in children and adolescents: a mixed methods systematic review
- Interventions to promote patient utilization of cardiac rehabilitation
Other Cochrane systematic reviews
- Rehabilitation for people with multiple sclerosis: an overview of Cochrane Reviews
- Interventions for treating wrist fractures in children
- Constraint-induced movement therapy in children with unilateral cerebral palsy
Recently Added CPG+ resources
APTA's CPG+ program brings in identified member experts in research methodology to review selected CPGs and grade them based on the AGREE II tool. The result? A quality ranking of the guideline with highlights, plus a “Check Your Practice” list describing how you can incorporate the guideline into your clinical care.
Latest CPG+ additions:
- Physical Therapy Management of Congenital Muscular Torticollis: A 2018 Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guideline From the APTA Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy (CPG+)
- Knee Pain and Mobility Impairments: Meniscal and Articular Cartilage Lesions, Revision 2018: Clinical Guidelines Linked to the ICF From the Orthopaedic Section of the APTA (CPG+)
Recently Added Tests and Measures
Although many tests and measures are easy to administer, few are easy to find in their published formats. PTNow offers members licensed access to some 270 instruments for use in the clinic, with another dozen postings in development.The following tests and measures are recommended for use within the Physical Therapy Outcomes Registry. The Registry’s Scientific Advisory Panel has reviewed these tests and measures for appropriateness in terms of reliability, validity, feasibility of use, and adoption by physical therapists or other health care providers. Final results from these tests and measures can be manually entered into the Registry or synced from an electronic health record:
Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS)
- PROMIS Global-10
- PROMIS Mobility
- PROMIS Pain Interference, PROMIS-PI
- PROMIS Physical Function (PF), PROMIS PF
Other tests and measures
- Functional Gait Assessment (FGA)
- Hip Disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score for Joint Replacement (HOOS, JR)
- Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score for Joint Replacement (KOOS, JR)
- Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Index and Oswesry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire (ODI, ODQ)
- Veterans RAND 12 Item Health Survey (VR-12)