Great Physical Therapy Resources on the Web
January 23, 2012 
5 Comments
I am often asked how I stay on top of so much research and information on the internet. Beisdes, being something I enjoy doing, I am always motivated to further improve myself and never stop learning. These are two of my most admired qualities of physical therapists and something I would include in my career advice for physical therapy students.
It actually isn’t that hard, that is if you know how to take advantage of the web and it’s many great resources. I have been planning on writing an article like this for some time, but have found that Kyle Ridgeway at PT Think Tank has pretty much already done it for me! Kyle has a serious of articles teaching us how to find and stay on top of all the great research and resources on the web for physical therapists and rehabilitation specialists.
The Web 2.0 and RSS Feeds
The first article takes a look at the current trends of the internet and how you can use RSS feeds to keep track of all your favorite websites, including journals! This is a great place to start if you don’t know what a RSS feed is or how to use them.
Using Google Reader
The second article focuses on how to set up Google Reader to access all these great feeds and organize them in one great place! Once you understand RSS feeds, you need this free account from Google. It is a must have resource.
Rehabilitation Journals to Follow
The third article discusses the many physical therapy and rehabilitation journals that are available but more importantly has links to access all the journal feeds. Take some time with this post and click the links of all your favorite journals to start setting up your Google Reader account.
Physical Therapy Related Blogs
The forth article discuss the other area of information on the internet in addition to journals, blogs and websites. There is a great list of blogs to follow to get started (including mine, thanks!). Be sure to follow each of the websites that interest you. You’ll start to realize that you will be accumulating RSS feeds pretty quick, that is great, it is like a snowball! My reader has well over 100 feeds that I follow.
Additional Tips from Mike
I think Kyle did a great job with this information and recommend everyone get started. There are a few additional tips that I would recommend:
- Get an app on your phone and iPad to access Google Reader so that you can check out your feeds at anytime. This is how I spend most spare moments! I use Feedler but there are plenty. You can also simply click and share any interesting articles on sites like Twitter and Facebook, which brings me to my next point…
- Get on Twitter and Facebook and follow/friend colleagues and people to learn from. I can’t tell you how many awesome professional discussion are going on in addition to sharing of great content.
- Many of these websites also have newsletters that provide additional content to subscribers only. If you really like a website, I would subscribe as well (this would be a great time to subscribe to my newsletter if you haven’t already!).
Hope that helps get you started. What else do you do? Please comment and share any other tips you use. There are many great physical therapy resources on the web to take advantage of!
There’s a free service called Google Alerts that is very handy for having good content delivered to your inbox. You can use it to receive email alerts when new content about any topic is posted on the internet.
Go to http://www.google.com/alerts to get started but make sure you also check out this page for details on how to enter the alerts properly. The tips are very important to ensure you only receive relevant content. For example, I want to know when anything about my clinic is posted on the internet but if I just typed in Carter Physiotherapy as an alert, I would be notified about anything new that had “Carter” OR “Physiotherapy” (and I would actually receive info on related terms like “Physio” as well). By putting quotes around “Carter Physiotherapy,” I ensure that I’m only notified when the two words are used together.
You can obviously be alerted about any rehab-related topic this way as soon as they hit the internet.
Happy Reading!
Jarod Carter PT, DPT, MTC
Mike,
Honored that you featured my series of posts. I can not agree more about the applications and getting connected on Twitter. Twitter is an excellent networking platform as well as a place that you can access great info and links.
I have two more posts in this series. The 5th post is about how to tie together RSS, Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs to truly learn and grow: http://ptthinktank.com/2012/01/17/leveraging-technology-v-beyond-rss-to-engagement/
The 6th post will be coming soon, and features a real life “case study” on how I used twitter and google reader to engage in a discussion relating to sports metrics and injury risk reduction for ACL injuries.
Cheers!
In the 6th and finally post of the series, I illustrate how I utilized Google Reader, Twitter, and a Blog Post to discuss research, language, and clinical practice…
The topic is ACL Injury “Prevention” Programs:
http://ptthinktank.com/2012/01/29/leveraging-technology-vi-case-example-acl-injury-prevention/
Enjoy!
Mike,
I think you do a great job hosting a site that keeps up-to-date with current news and topics in the world of PT. I think it is underestimated the value of continuing to learn and progress our knowledge in the field besides just taking mandatory CEU courses. I have two twitter accounts related to the field, a website dedicated helping PTs find permanent jobs, and recently started another social networking site for PTs and allied health professionals. I invite you and your followers to check out the site and post any blogs, events, discussions there as well. Thanks again for putting up quality information and blogs!
Michael
Forgot to add the link to my last post. To see the new social networking site exclusively for PTs and allied health professionals visit: http://www.physioconnection.com! Thanks again