Many physical therapists use orthopaedic/orthopedic rehab protocols frequently throughout their daily practice. Former Calgary Flames and Canadian Olympic Team Physical Therapist, Terry Kane, used to run a website called OrthopaedicProtocols.com . The site linked to dozens of orthopaedic/orthopedic protocol documents from all over the internet. Unfortunately he has since taken the site down. The documents included come from sites such as:
- Advanced Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine
- Bringham and Womens Hospital
- Cappagh National Orthopaedic Hospital
- Cochrane Review
- WorksafeBC
- Massachusetts General Hospital
- Cincinnati Sportsmedicine and Orthopaedic Center
- Dr. Millet / Steadman Hawkins
- Gundersen Lutheran
- PureSportsMed
- University of Kentucky
- University of Minnesota Orthopaedics
- University Sports Medicine – University of Buffalo
- Massachusetts General Hospital
- Kevin Freedman MD, Orthopaedic Specialists
…and many more. Protocol documents available are varied, from ankle sprains to post-op artificial discs and almost everything in between. Outcome and radiological documents are also available.
From the site:
- Ownership / Editor: The site is 100% privately owned and edited by Licensed Canadian Physical Therapist, Terry Kane (www.terrykane.ca)
- Authors: This database consists of hypertext links to protocols authored by licensed healthcare professionals or academic institutions. All protocols are currently part of the public domain on the internet or have been submitted by the authors themselves.
- Mission: The site was designed to help students and clinicians find diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitative protocols to help them in managing their patients. The protocols are not presented to replace the care and advice of a licensed healthcare professional but rather for educational purposes of healthcare professionals only. This website does not endorse any of the protocols presented, but rather, provides them as a library for visitors to access and evaluate for themselves independently.
- Target Audience: The site was designed and authored for an audience of licensed healthcare professionals and students.
Terry had put together a very useful resource with this vast collection of protocols available online. Much can be learned from studying the differences and similarities between the many available. The site also offers the ability for practitioners to submit their own protocols to be added to the system.
One feature that I would like to see added to the site is the ability for site visitors to rate the various protocols available. Doing so would require that users register with the site, something that is not currently required or possible. I believe the lack of registration required is for ease of use and to prevent people from being concerned about privacy issues. However, I feel that allowing those interested in registering to give their ratings would make the site even better.
You can now find a smaller collection of rehab protocols at Physiopedia (the rehab protocols are no longer available at Physiopedia).
Thanks for sharing that very useful resource list. Will in no doubt come in handy
I agree a rating system would be a nice addition, but you’re right in assuming there would be a bit of a loss of usability. As it is, the site is a pretty nice resource. Thanks for calling attention to it.