Multidisciplinary Diagnostic Reconciliation as a Domain of Hospital Physical Therapist Practice

Abstract

An axiom repeated in health care is that they eyes are unable to see what the mind does not yet know. As diagnosticians trained to evaluate functional capacity, identify the impairments that produce functional limitations, and synthesize knowledge of pathophysiology and psychosocial context, physical therapists enjoy opportunities to function as clinicians uniquely valuable to their patients. The more information that a therapist possesses about a disease state or movement disorder, the better-informed will be their patient examinations, the more readily will they identify the subtle abnormalities that become persuasive constellations, and the greater will become their capacity to help their patients.