This post was contributed by Ann Wendel, PT.  Ann is the owner of PranaPT, a member of WebPT and active on social media. Thanks to Ann for being a resource and thought leader!

I wanted to take a moment to make everyone aware of some great interactions that are happening on Twitter, where healthcare providers are discussing issues pertinent to the current and future state of care. (If you aren’t on Twitter, go register right now!) The Twitterverse is full of extremely bright, passionate people sharing ideas and research.

Recently a new hashtag was born on Twitter as the result of many of us trying to keep track of our discussions about practice issues in physical therapy. The tag is #solvept. A TweetChat (organized discussion) happens on Twitter during #solvePT Tuesdays from 9-10 pm EST; however, anyone can post a thought or question at any time using the #solvept, and engage with other users who may be interested in the discussion. This link introduces the idea and an overview of the tweets is provided after the chat for those who may want to re-visit the topic.

Recent topics on #solvept Tuesday evenings have included Continuing Education, Productivity, and Direct Access. Join in to discuss ways that we can all become change agents to improve the profession that we love. Every one of us matters when it comes to educating the public, influencing our national and state associations, and generating support for change at a legislative level.

The second hashtag I want to mention is one that I co-host with Dr. David Geier. Dr. Geier is an orthopaedic surgeon and the Director of MUSC Sports Medicine. He is the Head Team Physician for the Charleston Battery soccer team and Chief Tournament Physician for the Family Circle Cup women’s professional tennis tournament. He has served as orthopaedic consultant for professional and elite sports teams, including the United States Women’s Soccer team and the Eagles USA Rugby National team. He also serves as the head team physician for many area high schools and is the head physician for many recreational sports teams and leagues.

We host #socialortho on the first Wednesday of each month from 9-10pm EST. We usually get a great mix of physical therapists, ATC’s and MD’s (as well as an occasional patient) to discuss topics such as social media in healthcare, practice issues, clinical topics, and patient/provider relationship issues. I would personally love to get more patients interacting, as it is always interesting to get feedback on these issues from their perspective. Transcripts are provided after the chat for those who missed the live discussion or simply want to read through again.

There are many, many Healthcare-related TweetChats that occur weekly or monthly. This Healthcare TweetChat calendar highlights the ones that registered on this site: http://www.symplur.com/healthcare-hashtags/tweet-chats/

I look forward to seeing you around the Twitterverse for continued conversation!

As the war between Apple-ites and PC-ers rages on, it’s easy to get caught in the middle. If you’ve already put your stake in the ground, no snarky web images, clever TV commercials, or humorous print ads are going to sway you. But if you’re a computer newbie or looking for a change, the competing messages can be more than a little overwhelming.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last twenty years, you’ve probably been inundated by the Mac vs. PC personas—Mac is the cool kid, pretty boy, hipster, hacker, designer (think ripped jeans and a t-shirt) where PC is the grown up, serious, focused, business-minded analyst (think three piece suit and, just maybe, a paisley tie).

Kelly Ford, Content Lead for Hunch, Inc., examined differences between Mac and PC people in their self-professed aesthetic preferences, media choices, and personality traits in her article “Mac vs PC People: Personality Traits & Aesthetic/Media Choices.”

Because our focus for May is my forte—technology—I thought I’d take the writing reins for this month. I’m sure many of you know the story of WebPT; but for those of you who don’t, it all started back in the summer of 2006 when Heidi—who was running a large sport clinic here in Arizona—asked me to help her find an EMR system. At that time, I’d been in the software field for 15 years and had seen my fair share of products, so I agreed to give her a hand.

After seven or eight demos, I was dumbfounded. Maybe it was my outsider’s viewpoint, but with each demo I couldn’t help but think there had to be a better option out there. To top it off, the costs were ridiculous! Some of the quotes we received for her 10-therapist clinic reached into the 100K range after we factored in the servers, yearly re-licensing, support, and IT staff to keep it all running. It was at this point that I offered to build Heidi a “little App” for her clinic.

Thanks to Marissa for sharing this innovative use of technology for therapy with us today! Marissa A. Barrera, MS, MPhil, MSCS, TSHH, CCC-SLP is the owner of New York Neurogenic Speech-Language Pathology, P.C., a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) and Professor of Acquired Motor Speech & Swallowing Disorders. With private practices located in Midtown and on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Marissa and her team of SLPs feel privileged to provide therapeutic services to hundreds of patients each year. A graduate of Columbia University, she has earned an MS, MPhil, and a Multiple Sclerosis Certified Specialist certification (MSCS) while working towards her PhD in Neurolinguistics (language science). In short, Marissa is proud to be a part of the WebPT community and hopes to help you foster optimal speech and language development in your patients! www.nyneuroslp.com

In honor of this month in which Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) all over the country join together to spread the word of awareness, I thought it would be appropriate to share with you a way for you to grow your practice, help more individuals in need, all the while reducing your practice’s operation costs.

Living in a world where companies are no longer confined to conducting business within a local radius, globalization affords businesses the opportunity to work without boundaries. Although historically Speech-Language Pathologists have always treated their patients within an arm’s reach, in this modern, global market we now too have the opportunity to help patients well outside of our immediate geographic area.

To own a speech-language pathology private practice in the past meant you had to feverishly market yourself to local doctors, psychologists, social workers, PTs, OTs, schools and neighborhood families. In the event that there were multiple practices within close proximity, you had to work twice as hard just in order to maintain a presence in the local market. If the practice model I’ve just described sounds like YOUR current business, then perhaps it is time for you to branch out and consider providing web-based speech and language therapy. If you are tired of participating in the referral rat race, wanting to expand your revenue sources, and are genuinely interested in helping as many individuals as possible, I encourage you to take a moment to peruse the basic facts and some unique benefits to administering web-based therapy.