My Internship

My internship site this year is for physical therapy. And my supervisor for this internship is Dr. Loghmani.

We are doing research, development, and testing on rehab technology that characterizes in real-time the 3D forces, stroke frequency, and strokes that are delivered during soft tissue manual therapy.

Goals:

Learning Goal #1: Compare different types of methods used for recovery and figure out which is best for certain situations at the Comprehensive Pain Assessment Clinic (CoPAC) at IUH Family Medicine Center. What I can do to work on this goal is to contact Alison and receive her insight on what is best.

Learning Goal #2: Analyze research and critique what can be improved or what can be used for patients at CoPAC and with soft tissue manipulation. What I can do to work on this goal is to work with Dr. Loghmani on testing different QSTM tools and also analyze research provided by her.

Learning Goal #3: Communicating with and summarize findings with fellow peers and advisor for feedback. What I can do to work on this goal is to meet with my supervisor and other fellow advisors for feedback.

During my time with this internship, I've been entrusted with many tasks. To date, I've analyzed research from soft tissue manipulation packets, input data from surveys from physical therapy students, and been a test subject for QSTM tools and how it affects patients and blood flow. In the future, it is set for me to experiment with other QSTM devices and also travel with my supervisor for more physical therapy events. I've informed her about my decision to become a physical therapist and she was excited. As of now, I will work more closely with her and the program to enhance my learning of this field.

Successes and Challenges

Throughout this internship, I've across some successes and challenges. My big success is being a test subject. I've been testing QSTM tools for a few times to see how a patient would react to it. One of my challenges was reading the data that came with the tool. Some data could be a little confusing and it would hinder me from fully understanding it at times. Even when the supervisor would explain it, it'll still take me a few more attempts to finally grasp the concept.

Expectation vs Reality

I remember first coming into this internship with the mindset of working with actual patients. Little did I know I'm doing more of behind the scenes work. I'm doing more of research and testing devices. It was surprising that I was doing something different than what I originally expected to do, but it's still nice to to do hands on work in this field either way.

Project: The Reproducibility and Consistency of Instrument-Assisted Soft Tissue Manipulation

The overall purpose of this study is to objectively describe and test the consistency and reproducibility

of instrument-assisted soft tissue manipulation (IASTM).The specific aims of this current study are to:

a) Analyze IASTM stroke patterns using objective metrics;

b) Test the consistency of force application, with and without visual monitoring of objective metrics,

and;

c) Determine the reliability of dynamic pressure pain threshold assessment.

The ultimate goal of this continuing line of research is to improve soft tissue manual therapy practice in

research, education, and clinic for use as a non-invasive modality in soft tissue assessment and

treatment. Results from this protocol will inform future clinical trials, including studies exploring the

effects of different IASTM dose-loads in various musculoskeletal pain conditions.

The specific hypotheses are as follows:

a) Common characteristics (e.g. signature profiles) of basic stroke patterns (e.g. linear, curved), as

performed by experienced manual therapists, including the stroke rate, angle of application, and

direction, can be identified and described for potential use and replication in education, research, and

clinical practice;

b) Intra- and inter-therapist consistency of IASTM force application will improve with use of objective

metrics;

c) Therapists can reliably assess dynamic pressure pain threshold.

With this internship, I've accomplished more than enough of what I was expecting. I'm confident that I've developed knowledge and wisdom to where I can make conscious decisions regarding my career. With my workplace culture, we are all there to help people. We bring healing to the patients and we restore confidence. There's a lot of interaction between us colleagues. We work together to identify the main problem and solve it. We listen to all perspectives and take each opinion into account when making a decision. This is basically my ideal workplace culture.

Internship Professionalism

Throughout the internship, I was more of the test subject myself. The supervisor and other colleagues have demonstrated QSTM devices on different parts of the body and how much force and other factors were needed to produce the best results. I've also engaged in conversations with the team on what could be done better or if there are any other methods we can use.