Meet the Instructor of our Brand New Bowel Dysfunction course!

In April of this year, H&W is thrilled to be offering a brand new course on Bowel Pathology and Function. Our Pelvic Rehab Report blogger interviewed the instructor Lila Abbate, PT, DPT, MS, OCS about her new course.

1. What can you tell us about this continuing education course that is not mentioned in the "course description" and "objectives" that are posted online?

This course goes into detail about laxative weaning, how and when to use over-the-counter products and some supplements, food that are helpful to aid in bowel function. The course looks at different concomitant past medical histories such IBS, the neurogenic bowel with a SCI patient, MS and fibromyalgia and the progression of their bowel issues and how PTs can assist these patients. The course discusses evidence-based treatment vs. anecdotal and clinical experiences.

2. What inspired you to create this course?

I felt that there was a need for a course like this. So many patients have very complicated bowel issues and there is so much more to think about regarding a complicated bowel patient. As a pelvic PTs, I realized that I needed to understand more of the general knowledge of the gut and how physicians approach the problem, how so many over-the-counter products can be destructive to normal bowel function and the dysfunction bowel patients that most patients get in to and cannot get out of and how we are able to help them.

3. Can you describe the clinical/treatment approach/techniques covered in this continuing education course?

As all H&W courses have an emphasis on the manual orthopedic approach, we screen and treat both vaginal and rectal pelvic floor muscles in this course, evaluate and treat for diastasis recti in both the male and female population and we discuss the use of biofeedback for the complicated patients. We also complete rectal ballooning as part of the lab.

4. Why should a therapist take this course? How can these skill sets benefit his/ her practice?

If you have bowel patients that have been difficult to take through the course of care, or if you took PF2A a while ago and need a refresher on bowel pathology, or if have a deeper interest in bowel dysfunction, this course will give you the additional knowledge that you are looking for.

5. How has this knowledge and skill set benefited you in your own practice?

My practice specializes in pelvic pain and bowel dysfunction. Bowel dysfunction is such an underserved population within pelvic floor dysfunction population. In the US alone in 2004, a primary complaint of constipation was responsible for 6.3 million patient visits to medical care centers, resulting in total (direct and indirect) costs of $1.7 billion, which we can surmise 8 years later, has almost doubled and these patients need care.

6. What resources and research were used when writing this course?

Evidenced-based research is the primary guide used to present most information. However, clinical expertise and anecdotal information cannot be ignored due to the fact that we have such low peer-reviewed articles presented on this topic. Information gathered from medical conferences will also be presented.

This course will be offered April 13-14 at Stony Brook University in New York. Don't miss this excellent opportunity - Register today!