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These surprising specialists may help you kick habits and prevent disease
November 26, 2018
Physical and occupational therapists are teaming up with physicians to provide personalize care for injury recovery, disease prevention and much more.
By Amber Dance / USC Today
(Illustration by David Plunkert)
They stop back pain. Treat headaches. Help people quit smoking and lose weight. They even get cancer patients back on their feet.
But they’re not medical doctors. They’re physical and occupational therapists.
With specialties that go way beyond rehab for knee surgery or stroke, USC’s physical therapists and occupational therapists are teaming up with physicians to provide a whole-health approach to prevent disease and injury. Across the nation, these professionals are increasingly contributing to patients’ everyday health care.
At USC, some of these therapists work closely with health care providers at primary care clinics, where people go for regular checkups. Others are located in specialist centers, such as USC’s headache clinic, where they form a critical part of the health care team. While physicians typically spend 15 to 20 minutes with each patient to provide medical care, therapists can complement doctors’ work by devoting more time to a patient’s unique issues and working intensely with the patient to resolve them.
Read the full article at USC Today.
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