Biomarker Assessment to Improve Rehabilitation Treatment

The measurement and interpretation of biomarkers like patient vitals, functional measures and labs in the therapy setting is at best underperformed and sometimes, at worst, even ignored. In just one of many similar studies, Crick et al. found that in the acute care setting following orthopedic surgery, Vital signs were taken 46.1% of time on initial evaluation but only 21.6% of time on subsequent visits. Withthat said, biomarkers not only give us a glimpse of a patient's current health status but can also predict numerous items including, but not limited to, future physical performance, future health, ability to participate in therapy, appropriate discharge setting and fall risk.

The goal of this course is to demonstrate how, with little effort, vitals, functional biomarkers and labs can be taken,interpreted and used as a tool to assess patient status and predict patient outcomes. It is my hope that the informationcontained in this course will immediately be put into practice and help therapists recognize changes in patient statusearlier, improve confidence when treating more complex patients and bridge the communication gap between therapy and non-therapy medical practitioners.

Highlights

• Immediately improve your ability to take vitals, assess patient status, determine patient ability to participate in therapy sessions and predict immediate and long-term health status
• Review accurate assessment of vitals, biomarkers and functional outcome measures
• Learn interventions that can be immediately implemented in patients with abnormal vitals, biomarkers or functional outcome measures

Target Audience: Physical Therapists, Physical Therapist Assistants, Occupational Therapists, Occupational Therapy Assistants, Athletic Trainers