New On PTManagerBlog

[Guest guest]

Your Daily Posterous Spaces Update September 13th, 2011 TAKING

CONTROL: Physical therapy helps with urinary incontinence - Fall River, MA -

The Herald

News<http://ptmanagerblog.com/taking-control-physical-therapy-helps-with-ur>

Posted 1 day ago by [image: _portrait_thumb] Kovacek, PT, DPT,

MSA <http://posterous.com/people/1l1oCkDWEWjv> to

PTManager<http://ptmanagerblog.com>

[image: Like this

post]<http://posterous.com/likes/create?post_id=69830069>

TAKING CONTROL: Physical therapy helps with urinary incontinence

[image: Urinary incontinence.jpg]

<http://www.heraldnews.com/d/x462613005/TAKING-CONTROL-Physical-therapy-helps-wi\

th-urinary-incontinence?photo=0>

Physical Therapist McCabe explains how specific exercises can help

with urinary incontinence. part of the therapy plan includes biofeedback to

help the patient learn to successfully perform the exercise.Fall River —

A woman in her 30s wants to start taking aerobics to get back into shape

after the birth of her child. One thing is holding her back from exercising

in public: urinary incontinence.

Fortunately, there are non-surgical approaches to treating this potentially

embarassing condition.

Physical therapist McCabe of Saint Anne’s Rehabilitation Services

specializes in treating urinary incontinence in females. She helps patients

regain strength and control over the muscles in their pelvic floor through a

comprehensive exercise regimen and bladder retraining. According to McCabe,

women affected by this condition can permanently eliminate these accidents,

but they are going to have to work at it.

“It works but they have to put the time in,” said McCabe. “I’m a guide, I

can’t do it for them. I give them the tools and the information so they can

do it for themselves.”

First, patients will be hooked up to a biofeedback machine to determine

strength, endurance and quality of contractions of their pelvic floor. Next,

they will be assigned a series of exercises designed to strengthen these

muscles, giving the patient more control over their bladder.

The exercises include wall squats, lunges, situps and deep breathing. McCabe

will have the patient do 60 sets per day initially, but as they gain

strength they can cut down on their repetitions. She usually recommends they

break up the routine, doing half of their daily exercises in the morning and

the other half at night. The entire regimen takes less than 20 minutes per

day to perform.

“The beauty is you can do these anywhere, anyplace, anytime,” said McCabe.

The other key to recovery is bladder retraining. Some people will force

themselves to go the bathroom even when their bladder is not full because

they think that will eliminate the urge to go later.

“You’re training your bladder that it is okay to contract when it’s not at

full capacity,” said McCabe.

McCabe has her patients fill out a diary showing how often they go to the

bathroom and how much liquid they drink in a day. Another common

misconception is drinking less water will alleviate the problem. McCabe said

taking in less fluids actually aggravates the condition.

“The less you drink you are concentrating irritants in your bladder,” said

McCabe. “It’s like nails on a chalkboard to your bladder. It’s only response

it to contract to get out the waste, the more water you drink you are

diluting it, your bladder is happier.”

McCabe said patients from all walks of life have been affected by this

problem. She has treated women ranging in age from their 20’s to their 80’s.

Almost everyone can get it under control by following her instructions.

“There’s never a good reason for leaking,” said McCabe. “The people that do

the exercises every day are the ones that get better.”

To help women deal with this condition Saint Anne’s Hospital Rehabilitation

Services is hosting “Regaining Control: How Physical Therapy Can Help

Women’s Urinary Incontinence” on Tuesday, Sept. 20, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., at

Saint Anne’s Hospital. There is no charge, but to ensure seating, advance

registration is advised. To register, or learn more about the program, call

Saint Anne’s Hospital Rehabilitation Services at .

Email Vital at

dvital@...<http://www.heraldnews.com/d/x462613005/TAKING-CONTROL-Phys\

ical-therapy-helps-with-urinary-incontinence/mailto:dvitalheraldnews>

via

heraldnews.com<http://www.heraldnews.com/d/x462613005/TAKING-CONTROL-Physical-th\

erapy-helps-with-urinary-incontinence>

WellPoint Hires IBM's 'Jeopardy!'-Playing Computer System, -

WSJ.com<http://ptmanagerblog.com/wellpoint-hires-ibms-jeopardy-playing-compute>

Posted 1 day ago by [image: _portrait_thumb] Kovacek, PT, DPT,

MSA <http://posterous.com/people/1l1oCkDWEWjv> to

PTManager<http://ptmanagerblog.com>

[image: Like this

post]<http://posterous.com/likes/create?post_id=69830897>

WellPoint's New Hire. What Is ?

By ANNA WILDE

MATHEWS<http://online.wsj.com/search/term.html?KEYWORDS=ANNA+WILDE+MATHEWS & bylin\

esearch=true>

, the " Jeopardy! " -playing computer system, is getting a job.

WellPoint<http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn & symbol=WLP>Inc.

and International

Business

Machines<http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn & symbol=IBM>Corp.

are set to announce a deal on Monday for the health insurer to use the

technology, the first time the high-profile project will result in a

commercial application.

WellPoint said it plans to use 's data-crunching to help suggest

treatment options and diagnoses to doctors. It is part of a far broader push

in the health industry to incorporate computerized guidance into care, as

doctors and hospitals adopt electronic medical records and other digital

tools that can record, track and check their work.

For IBM, the agreement with WellPoint could provide some real-world ballast

for , which IBM boasts can process about 200 million pages of content

in less than three seconds. is part of the company's broader effort

to build a large business in the competitive field of business analytics,

which uses software to mine huge volumes of data to aid decision-making.

Exact terms of the agreement weren't disclosed, but A. Mills, the IBM

senior vice president who oversees its software group, said WellPoint's

payments " involve some up front and some over time, " and " is something we

would see grow over time. "

[image: watson0911]

Close

Associated Press

" Jeopardy! " champions Ken Jennings, left, and Brad Rutter, right, look on as

the IBM computer called " " beats them to the buzzer to answer a

question during a practice round of the " Jeopardy! " quiz show in January.

Mr. Mills said the system could be used in settings as varied as call

centers and offices doing engineering and scientific work, and he believes

the technology carries the potential to grow into a business

generating $1 billion of annual revenue.

The first deployment would come early next year with WellPoint nurses

who manage complex patient cases and review treatment requests from medical

providers. Then the insurer will roll out the technology to a small number

of oncology practices, which would likely allow doctors to access it through

their own computer systems or tablets. Lori Beer, a WellPoint executive vice

president, said the company hopes the service will improve quality of care,

which it believes could lower costs.

WellPoint officials said they ultimately want to provide the service

more broadly to physicians who treat complicated chronic conditions, and

they hope to create an application that could be accessed directly by

patients seeking health information.

Researchers have been trying since the 1970s to develop computers that can

advise doctors, but the efforts haven't gotten much traction. Now, though,

the health industry is under unprecedented pressure to digitize. At the same

time, medical providers are increasingly paid based at least partly on

quality-of-care measures.

Electronic medical records already often incorporate at least rudimentary

" clinical decision support " tools, such as automatic warnings about possible

drug interactions. Others integrate more complex versions, like a service

from Anvita Health Inc. that can make treatment recommendations and one from

Isabel Healthcare Inc. that focuses on suggesting potential diagnoses.

Oncologists said they would like to test a technology like that could

take on their most complicated questions. But, they said, it would be

important to understand the process and data that led to the

recommendations—and to be sure the computer system was programmed to seek

out the most effective options, with cost a secondary consideration.

" I would want to make sure was being directed as an objective tool, "

said Glaspy, an oncologist at the University of California, Los

Angeles.

Sam Nussbaum, WellPoint's chief medical officer, said the project was

" not about limiting care; it's about assuring the right care is given, "

based on medical evidence.

hasn't yet been used in a real-world health setting. Researchers at

Columbia University and the University of land have been helping IBM to

select medical data, including textbooks and treatment guidelines, and to

help integrate capabilities into electronic medical records. They say

they have tested it using thousands of medical-quiz questions.

Herbert Chase, a Columbia professor of clinical medicine who is an IBM

consultant, said he tried on a tough case he had experienced as a

young doctor: a woman in her thirties with severe muscle weakness, who had

blood tests indicating a low level of phosphate and elevated alkaline

phosphatase, an enzyme. 's top suggestions were hyperparathyroidism

and rickets. It also flagged the possibility of a rare form of rickets that

is vitamin D resistant—which the woman indeed had.

Dr. Chase said displays excerpts to identify its data sources.

Ms. Beer said it was " too soon to tell " if WellPoint would someday seek to

sell -based services to medical providers. It may license

WellPoint-developed tools to other Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans,

she said.

via

online.wsj.com<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240531119035328045765646007\

81798420.html?mod=djemHL_t>

[image: Posterous] <http://posterous.com> Want your

own?<http://posterous.com> Change

your email

settings<http://posterous.com/email_subscriptions/hash/gspsqucxgqviGogjvCufJwAxB\

xkgmH>