IFOMPT 2012 – Quebec City, Canada – Rendez-vous of Hands and Minds

LJ has recently returned from a great 10 days in Quebec City, Canada, at IFOMPT 2012, with Discover Physio teaching partner Diane Lee. LJ and Diane had the opportunity to share The Integrated Systems Model (Lee & Lee) and LJ’s Thoracic Ring Approach with almost 1500 delegates from over 45 countries. It was a busy time, starting with co-teaching a 2-day “Treating the Whole Person” pre-conference course, presentations during the conference, and finishing with a podium invited presentation on the last morning of the conference and a focused symposium on neuroplasticity and pelvic girdle pain.

On Thursday morning, LJ led a thought-provoking focused symposium with Roger Kerry from the University of Nottingham examining the Evidence for EBP – stay tuned as we will post the lecture here on the Discover Physio website soon. It was a paradigm challenging session! That same afternoon, LJ and Diane presented LJ’s innovative Thoracic Ring Approach and how it determines when and when not to treat the thorax to restore function anywhere in the body. The focus of the session was to discuss thoracic manipulation and how it fits into the Thoracic Ring Approach and The Integrated Systems Model.

After a great gala dinner with amazing Cirque du Soleil performances, Diane and LJ were first up on Friday morning to present the key distinguishing features of The Integrated Systems Model as a clinical reasoning framework to assess and treat the whole person – not just low back pain, not just neck pain, but the whole person. The “Lee gals” were happy to receive lots of positive feedback from delegates after the presentation.

Things were full-on until the end of the conference, with Diane participating in the last session and speaking on the evolution of our understanding of articular mobility of the SIJ joint, how neuroscience is helping us understand all the factors that impact joint mobility and the way the ISM can be used as a clinical reasoning model to know when the pelvis is the primary driver of the patient’s problem – or not!

That night, champagne and great food was enjoyed to celebrate a successful conference with friends Mark Jones and his wife Helen – perfect ending to a great time of seeing old friends and making new ones. Thank you to you the organizing committee for an outstanding conference. We also would like to congratulate Elaine Maheu for receiving the much-deserved Canadian David Lamb Memorial Golden Hands award.

This is the full Focused Symposium presented by LJ along with Roger Kerry (University of Nottingham) at the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Physical Therapists (IFOMPT) 2012 conference in Quebec City, Canada, on October 4, 2012. EBP was introduced into health care over 20 years ago and in this presentation LJ and Roger explore and challenge current definitions and the application of EBP in physiotherapy. The evidence for EBP is examined, and the role of clinical expertise and experience is discussed in the context of wise clinical decision-making.