1.  What is your organization’s interest in the Osteoarthritis Action Alliance (OAAA)?

The American Physical Therapy Association’s vision statement is: Transforming society by optimizing movement to improve the human experience.  Movement is a key to optimal living and quality of life allowing for every person to participate in and contribute to society. The complex needs of society, beckon for the physical therapy profession to engage with consumers to overcome barriers while reducing preventable health care costs, and ensuring a future society marked by full participation. APTA’s vision is also meant to inspire others throughout society to, together, create systems that optimize movement and function for all people. The Vision’s core principles of Identity, Quality, Collaboration, Value, Innovation, Consumer-centricity, Access/Equity, and Advocacy demonstrate how the profession and society will look when this vision is achieved.  Many of the individuals physical therapists see have joint pain that limits their activity and quality of life.  Physical therapists help these individuals maintain, restore, and improve movement, activity, and functioning, thereby enabling optimal performance. APTA is proud to partner with the OAAA, an organization that provides the vehicle for collaboration between many health care provider organizations all aiming to decrease the burden of osteoarthritis for individuals.  It takes more than one health care provider to effect a change in how we care for and manage individuals with osteoarthritis.

2.  What do you think is the most important issue today related to aging and osteoarthritis?

Many individuals think that osteoarthritis is a natural part of aging, and tend not to consult physical therapists or other providers until it is too late and then are faced with needing a costly joint replacement.  Often, the joint pain causes individuals to seek prescription medications, alter/lessen their activity/exercise, adopt sedentary lifestyles, gain weight, all of which can lead to more pain.  There is also the risk of individuals becoming dependent on dangerous prescription drugs to relieve their pain.  Physical therapists offer and promote  patient self-management, health, wellness, fitness  and prevention through education, exercise, and manual therapy. Their roles range from helping individuals with chronic conditions engage in physical activity programs to advising elite athletes on sports performance enhancement. These initiatives decrease costs by helping individuals: (1) achieve and restore optimal functional capacity; (2) minimize impairments, functional limitations, and disabilities related to congenital and acquired conditions; (3) maintain health (thereby preventing further deterioration or future illness); and (4) create appropriate environmental adaptations to enhance independent function.   Prevention early on is key in decreasing the joint stresses caused by obesity, repetitive injuries, muscular imbalances, postural abnormalities, limited range of joint motion, etc.

3. How does your organization’s work connect to issues in osteoarthritis?a.      With our vision and guiding principles (see #1), there are several areas that connect with OA. The physical therapist will be responsible for evaluating and managing an individual’s movement system across the lifespan to promote optimal development; diagnose impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions; and provide interventions targeted at preventing or ameliorating activity limitations and participation restrictions.  This focus on movement is extremely important for individuals with OA. 

b.      Promoting high quality practice principles, physical therapists are committed to establishing and adopting best practice standards across the domains of practice, education, and research just as the OAAA strives for best practice for individuals with OA. PTs strive to ensure safe, timely, effective, patient/client-centered, and equitable care with outcomes that are meaningful to patients/clients and the health care system overall.

c.       Collaborative care is essential for individuals with OA, and physical therapists understand the value of such collaboration with other health care providers, consumers, community organizations, and other disciplines to solve the health-related challenges that society faces. Physical therapists practice and collaborate across the continuum of care by referring, co-managing, engaging consultants, and directing and supervising care.  Because OA can occur anytime throughout the lifespan, physical therapists can identify problems early on and provide education and treatment as indicated.

d.      We also know that there is a component of health inequities and disparities in patients with OA.  Our goal is to work to ameliorate this through innovative models of service delivery, advocacy, attention to the influence of the social determinants of health on the consumer, collaboration with community entities to expand the benefit provided by physical therapy, serving as a point of entry to the health care system, and direct outreach to consumers to educate and increase awareness.

4. What is a headline you’d like to see about osteoarthritis in five years?
“Americans Are Moving To Improved Health”. For too many people, arthritis feels like a reason to stop moving. But for people with arthritis, movement is essential. Physical therapists have a vision of transforming society by optimizing movement to improve the human experience. In five years, we would love to see the public associate greater movement with greater health.

We would also like to see that the incidence of disability from OA is decreasing and that education about preventing OA begins in childhood.

5. What is one interesting fact you’d like people to know about your organization?

APTA has over 95,000 physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, and student members.