PTs and Title IX

Michael Sokolove writes a great article in the New York Times entitled “The Uneven Playing Field.” In this article, Michael looks at the increasing number of female participants in sports, and, as a result, the increased prevalence of injuries, specifically ACL injuries, in these female athletes. What’s great about this article though, is the author looks to a PT for answers about how to help these girls decrease their risk for injury. Holly Silvers, a physical therapist and director of research at the Santa Monica Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Research Foundation, does a great job marketing the PT profession by first pointing out the girls she saw at risk for overuse as well as acute traumatic injuries to the author. She then goes a step farther, when asked if she could help these girls by saying that “yes, in four to six weeks I could improve [them] a lot. In three months, I could get the job done. I would educate the muscles, educate the nerves. [They] could build strength and change [their] patterns.”
I have a great mentor who always quotes Benjamin Franklin, “ An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Now where’s that direct access?