APASC25: How does manual therapy work?
One of the more contentious topics in physiotherapy circles is the role of manual therapy in the modern profession. Musculoskeletal physiotherapist and PhD student Monique Wilson asks Professor Chad Cook what he is bringing to the discussion.
It’s increasingly important to study how manual therapy works, not just if it works—what excites you most about the potential of this shift to transform clinical practice?
Precision medicine requires that we match treatment mechanisms to disease mechanisms.
What excites me most is understanding meaningful, causal treatment mechanisms associated with manual therapy so that we might better match care for our patients.
How do you see the role of manual therapy evolving within modern, evidence-based practice and what implications might this have for the future of patient care?
Professor Chad Cook will be talking about manual therapy at APASC25.
I see manual therapy as a component of modern, evidencebased care, one that seems to work best when integrated into an active program with activation and education.
As AI integrates itself into medical care, I think there will be greater opportunities to distinguish ourselves from others (eg, health coaches, athletic trainers and personal trainers) who do not use manually based approaches.
Without giving too much away, what’s one key lesson you hope clinicians will take away from your sessions?
The goal of my first talk is to give a ‘state of science’ of manual therapy.
We know a lot about its place in musculoskeletal care but there is also much more work that needs to be done.
My second talk discusses the mechanisms literature completed thus far.
What may surprise some is that a majority of mechanisms work is preclinical or animal research and has no known transferability to clinical practice.
>> Professor Chad Cook is a professor at Duke University, with appointments in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, the Duke Clinical Research Institute and the Department of Population Health Sciences.
>> Chad will present two talks at APASC25: ‘The current state of manual therapy science: what we know and what we don’t’ on Thursday 23 October at 11.55 am and ‘Treatment mechanisms of manual therapy’ on Saturday 25 October at 10.35 am.
Click here for more information about APASC25.
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