The US Population is expected to grow 25% between now and 2025

Nearly one-third of all doctors are over the age of 55

Almost no new medical schools have been opened in the US in the past 25 years

These and a a few other gems were cited in yesterdays USA Today opinion article, US Savior: Foreign Doctors which also cites the difficulty in getting medical schools up and running (note for file:  PT schools are grossly more inefficient than medical schools).

I don’t think anybody would question the demographic and statistical trends that health care will be in much higher demand in the next several years.  Their is ample reasons to suggest that we will have a significant shortage in physicians to meet this demand.  If we play our cards right, physical therapists should be well positioned to help meet this demand.  We need a campaign that highlights PT’s as musculoskeletal experts and highlights  direct access to PT’s for those conditions.

Let’s continue to encourage health plans to charge a large co-pay for their beneficiaries that go to primary care for LBP and waive it if they go directly to a PT.

Let’s continue to highlight great articles like this that appeared in yesterday’s Desert Dispatch by a physical therapist.

Larry