Texas State University Evidence-based Practice Project

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Course Description[edit | edit source]

Welcome to Texas State University's Orthopaedic Evidence-based Practice Assignment project. This project was created by and for the students in the Doctor of Physical Therapy Program at Texas State University -San Marcos, and is part of the Orthopaedic curriculum.  This project is a component of the Orthopaedic Coursework in the Doctor of Physical Therapy Program at Texas State University. PT 7349, 7449, 7559

Course Instructors[edit | edit source]

Dr. Eric Robertson & Dr. Rob Wainner & Dr. Brenda Boucher

Project Dates[edit | edit source]

  1. Peripheral Component - November 2010
  2. Spinal Component - May 2011

Instructions[edit | edit source]

The assignment will challenge you to explore a given topic related to upper extremity course topics, integrate best evidence, including analysis of clinical trials, and develop and present professional digital content on a public wiki targeted to practicing professionals and students around the world. Your task is to develop a Physiopedia page after a review of the current best evidence on a given orthopaedic topic. The page should be an evidence-based review of your findings. This project will also consist of an oral group presentation of your page and topic, as well as the off-line submission of a one page critical analysis of a high-quality clinical trial.

Objectives[edit | edit source]

  • Coherently present diagnostic methods and intervention strategies or techniques for patients with selected disorders.
  • These disorders are often described via a classic disease or impairment/tissue model, however, you need to draw the link to physical therapy in terms of a impairment or disablement model and PT treatment. In other words what are the "key impairments" that result from these disorders and how can you as a therapist address these.
  • Search for, analyze, and integrate the best evidence related to a given topic to guide physical therapist practice.
  • Evidence for treatment approaches that have been documented via clinical trials or other clinical research, if available, should be emphasized; if not the relative value of the alternative sources should be clarified.
  • Develop digital media (web page, images, and video as appropriate) to present findings to the class, other students, and the general body of practicing physical therapists via an open international wiki site.
  • The focus should be to create a targeted mini in-service on the assigned topic. It should be concise and targeted to your audience of fellow therapists. The web page should make sure to emphasize why these topics are relevant to physical therapy.


Here are some examples of the links you could add to the resources section:

  • Medical sites related to the disorder
  • Video/photos related to the disorder
  • Links to abstract of research in Pubmed/Medline


A template for the article pages which contains sub-headings headings for the disorder has been provided, please follow the template for uniformity of content.

Articles[edit | edit source]

Below are links to the articles created during this project.

Head & Cervical Spine[edit | edit source]

Thoracic Spine[edit | edit source]

Lumbar Spine[edit | edit source]

Low Back[edit | edit source]

Shoulder[edit | edit source]

Elbow[edit | edit source]

Wrist and Hand[edit | edit source]

Hip & Pelvis[edit | edit source]

General Lower Extremity[edit | edit source]

Knee[edit | edit source]

Foot & Ankle[edit | edit source]