Tell us a bit about the program and presenters of ‘The Great Debate—to operate or not to operate?’

The symposium ‘The Great Debate—to operate or not to operate?’ will explore current research literature about the possible advantages and disadvantages of common interventions to manage knee and hip conditions.

Each session will have presentations by Specialist Physiotherapists (as awarded by the Australian College of Physiotherapists) or recognised physiotherapist experts in addition to a specialist orthopaedic surgeon in the relevant area, followed by a panel discussion where the audience will be invited to submit questions.

Conditions explored at the symposium include meniscal injuries in the younger and older person; anterior cruciate ligament injury management, including the presentation of a novel bracing protocol for native anterior cruciate ligament healing; knee and hip osteoarthritis management; hip impingement; and instability management.

Confirmed speakers include Professor David Hunter, Florance and Cope Chair of Rheumatology and Professor of Medicine at the University of Sydney and the Royal North Shore Hospital; Professor Tammy Hoffmann, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at Bond University; Dr Tom Cross, a specialist sports and exercise physician at the Stadium Clinic, Sydney; Dr Joanne Kemp, an APA Sports and Exercise Physiotherapist and an associate professor at La Trobe University, Melbourne; Dr Jonas Bloch Thorlund, a professor of musculoskeletal health at the University of Southern Denmark, Denmark; Nigel Hartnett, an orthopaedic knee surgeon, Melbourne; Dr Josh Heerey, a physiotherapist and a research fellow at La Trobe University, Melbourne; Dr Rintje Agricola, an orthopaedic medicine specialist at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands; and Dr Stephanie Filbay, a physiotherapist and senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne.  

Who would benefit most from attending ‘The Great Debate—to operate or not to operate?’

All physiotherapists, including musculoskeletal and sports physiotherapists working in public or private settings, will benefit from the information presented.

Physiotherapists at all levels, from student members to postgraduate physiotherapists, titled members, registrars and Specialist Physiotherapists, will learn from the research summaries and clinical expert opinions presented.

Why is this a must-attend event for physiotherapists?

Physiotherapist Jane Rooney FACP considers the upcoming virtual symposium exploring operative versus non-operative approaches to treatment.

Many clinicians would be aware of the Choosing Wisely campaign, which is a clinician-led initiative that identifies tests, treatments or procedures that doctors, physiotherapists and patients should question within each field of medicine.

Despite these types of initiatives, the challenges of overtreatment, overdiagnosis, over-imaging and possible harm through inappropriate interventions continue in modern medicine.

This symposium will explore some of the conditions commonly encountered by physiotherapists in their daily practice and assist them with discussion of appropriate interventions, based on contemporary research evidence and explored with their patients in a shared decision-making process.

What are participants likely to take away with them to apply in everyday practice?

Decisions about treatment options should be based on a balance of benefits, harms and treatment alternatives, presented to the patient by the healthcare practitioner in a way that encourages the patient to consider their own individual priorities.

This patient-centred care approach requires a partnership in healthcare and is reliant on the clinician’s specific knowledge of the risks, harms and alternatives as well as their interpersonal and unbiased communication skills.

This symposium will present the current evidence combined with expert opinion on commonly encountered conditions in the knee and hip, providing participants with the confidence to adopt this process and highlighting why it should be employed to optimise intervention outcomes.

‘The Great Debate—to operate or not to operate?’ is a full-day virtual symposium running live on Saturday 15 October. Click here for more information and to register.

>> Jane Rooney FACP is a director of Physio Educators, a Specialist Sports and Exercise Physiotherapist (as awarded by the Australian College of Physiotherapists in 2009) and an associate clinical professor at Swinburne University.