I guess I saw a gap in a practical course for lower limb tendinopathy. Physios see a large number of Achilles patients, and lots of patients with these lower limb tendinopathies. They are more common than you would think, but there was no comprehensive course out there that teaches physios how to manage and assess them.

There are courses out there that give you the theory of tendon pathology, how to manage someone on a theoretical basis. This course is different because it is going to the next level by doing practical approaches of every single common role in the tendon— the hamstring, the Achilles, the plantar fascia, the patella tendon, the gluteal. They are the five most common ones, and we basically go through an A to Z of assessment, diagnosis and management.

I wanted there to be something much more practical and hands on, which is funny to say in this context because it’s an online course, but by that I mean it has real, tangible, practical applications.

There are videos of assessments and how to do them, videos of all the exercises. The course isn’t just giving you a lecture about theory and saying, ‘this is what we know you should be doing’. The Mastering Lower Limb Tendinopathy course is there to take physiotherapists step-by-step through all the options and how to do them for lower limb tendinopathy cases, with tangible resources that will apply directly to patient care.

How does the course benefit both new graduates and experienced clinicians?

This course is valuable for new grads because they are often looking for a bit of structure, so they benefit from the framework provided around how to assess and manage. For the more experienced clinicians, this is the sort of advanced clinical reasoning that can be invaluable when working with more difficult cases in practice.

Everyone who undertakes the online course will have access to all the exercises and education materials that I use with tendon patients. I share all the videos and resources that I use in my own practice through Physitrack—which is really helpful because it’s great for telehealth. You can use Physitrack to provide exercises and videos to patients, and they find it really useful. So that is one of the bonuses you get with attending the online course.

What are some of the key takeaways for those who complete this online course?

The key take-homes are refining your skills and doing the simple things really, really well, for example, progressive exercise and the education and load management.

The course is about refining your ability to manage tendon cases in a much more evidence-based and nuanced way. It is learning about how to apply the real core aspects of management (effective education, progressive exercise and load management) to practical treatment. It provides context to the adjuncts that we do, for example when to do other things like taping and shockwave, etc, and when to refer on.

You can find ‘Mastering Lower Limb Tendinopathy’ at https://bit.ly/2Vbab8I 

>> Peter Malliaras, APAM, is a physiotherapist and researcher from Melbourne, and an associate professor at Monash University’s physiotherapy department. In 2006 he completed his PhD in tendinopathy, identifying novel risk factors, and has since undertaken post-doctoral research in the UK and Australia.