Dr. Joe Tatta | The Healing Pain Podcast

We're discussing how to train entry-level physical therapists to address the opioid epidemic. My guest is Dr. Anne Swisher. She is a Professor and Director of Scholarship for the West Virginia Division of Physical Therapy. She's been a Board-Certified Cardiopulmonary Clinical Specialist for several years and has taught in the area of cardiopulmonary physical therapy, exercise prescription and pathophysiology. She's also a Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association and has published over 80 peer reviewed publications. We focus on a paper Anne published called the Physical Therapist Roles During the Opioid Epidemic in Rural Appalachia: Preparing Students to Educate Communities. Anne is working to address opioid misuse in what some may consider an unconventional way. She's enhanced physical therapy instruction at West Virginia University to emphasize the physical therapist's role in preventing and treating opioid use disorder. The reason why this is such an important topic is beca