APTA Learning Center

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Concussion/mTBI Management

Explore the APTA Learning Center courses below to learn more!

Whether you want a quick review or an in-depth exploration, you can find the APTA Learning Center's courses on Concussion/mTBI on this page. Explore common signs and symptoms, differential diagnosis, and intervention strategies for both PTs and PTAs from experts in their fields.

  • Cervical Spine Management after a Concussive Event
    Recorded On: 06/17/2024

    (LMS-Cervical-Spine-Management) This course examines the signs and symptoms of cervical spine impairments commonly seen after concussions, and how to distinguish them from other overlapping manifestations. It discusses best practices from the recent Concussion Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG), intervention strategies, and evidence-based clinical management.

    This course is one out of six course offerings in the Brain Injury Certificate Series.

    This course will focus on the signs and symptoms which result from impairments in the cervical spine commonly seen after a concussive event, and how to distinguish them from the overlapping manifestations from the multiple systems potentially involved. Best practice recommendations from the recent Clinical Practice Guideline for rehabilitation after a concussive event (Concussion CPG) will be discussed, and strategies for intervention and evidence for clinical management will be presented.

    Learning Objectives:

    Given a patient who has experienced a suspected concussive event, by the end of this session participants will be able to:
    1. Recognize the typical presentation of symptoms and signs of cervicogenic dizziness.
    2. Describe the recommended elements and sequence of the Concussion CPG including appropriate assessments to identify impairments in the Cervico-Musculoskeletal domain.
    3. Apply current evidence to select appropriate assessments of the cervical musculoskeletal domain. 
    4. Select appropriate interventions that address the cervical musculoskeletal domain.

    Rob Landel

    PT, DPT, FAPTA, Director of Clinical Residency and Fellowship Programs

    University of Southern California

    Rob Landel, PT, DPT, FAPTA is Professor of Clinical Physical Therapy in the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy at the University of Southern California, where he is the Director of Clinical Residency and Fellowship Programs. He is a Board-Certified Orthopedic Specialist, a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, and a Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the APTA. With over 35 years of experience treating people with orthopedic, neurologic and vestibular complaints, Dr. Landel has lectured and trained therapists and physicians in the US, Asia, Europe, Australia and Africa in managing these patients. He founded USC Physical Therapy Associates, the division’s Faculty Practice, and the division’s first residency program (orthopedics). Dr. Landel has published on a variety of topics in orthopedics and in vestibular rehabilitation and has received national awards in teaching and research. His current clinical interest is the diagnostic dilemma and management challenge posed by patients with persistent post-concussion symptoms of dizziness.

    Course Instructions

    1. Click on the Contents tab to watch the course recording.
    2. Click the Take Quiz button to complete the assessment. Learners will have 3 attempts to pass and must answer at least 70% of questions correctly.
    3. Click Fill Out Survey under the Evaluation listing to provide valuable course feedback. Scroll down on all questions as there may be answer options that expand past the size of the window.
    4. Click the View/Print Your Certificate button under the Certificate listing. You can view/print your certificate at any time by visiting the APTA Learning Center and clicking the CEU Certificate/Transcript link on the left-hand side of the page. 

    Need Assistance?

    For assistance logging in, accessing activities, claiming credit, or for other questions or concerns, please e-mail learningcenter@apta.org. 

  • Trauma-Informed Meditation, Breathwork, and Yoga for Concussion and TBI
    Recorded On: 02/29/2024

    (LMS-Meditation-Concussion-TBI) This course covers mindfulness meditation, breathwork, and yoga for improving physical, cognitive, and psychosocial health after concussion and TBI. It highlights their benefits and addresses the lack of accessibility in physical rehabilitation, aiming to change that.

    This course is one out of six course offerings in the Brain Injury Certificate Series.

    In this highly interactive online workshop, you’ll leave with a range of practical, research-backed tools to improve patient outcomes and mitigate clinician burnout. We’ll cover the causes and consequences of TBI, meditation and breathwork techniques to regulate the nervous system and improve attention skills, chair yoga modifications for balance and dizziness, trauma-informed teaching techniques, language and cuing best practices for cognitive processing and memory, and more. There will be hands-on practice teaching in small groups, interactive Q&A, live meditation and yoga practices, and interactive breakouts to connect with clinical peers. 

    Learning Objectives:

    • Explain basic neuroscience and mechanism of meditation and breathwork for brain injury rehabilitation.
    • Describe the Intention, Attention, and Attitude mindfulness framework and why helpful for physical therapy after TBI.
    • Teach 1-2 brief meditation practices to improve attention control, mood, and interoception.
    • Teach 1-2 simple breathing exercise for nervous system regulation and pain management.
    • Design an individualized, TBI-friendly chair yoga sequence. 

    Kyla Pearce

    MPH, PhD, Certified Brain Injury Specialist, Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher

    Dr. Pearce (she/her) is the Senior Director of Programs and Research at LoveYourBrain, a national nonprofit that delivers evidence-based holistic health programs for the brain injury community. She oversees the design, implementation, and evaluation of LoveYourBrain Yoga, Mindset, and Retreats programs on a large scale. She has trained over 2,500 clinicians, yoga teachers, brain injury advocates, people with brain injury, and caregivers in how to adapt yoga, mindfulness, and psychoeducation for this population. She has developed a range of TBI-specific evidence-based yoga and mindfulness program curricula and integrated them into 60+ community and 30+ clinical contexts and online. She recently completed a NIH Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Dartmouth College investigating the impact of yoga and meditation for people with neurological conditions, including traumatic brain injury, and has published in several peer-reviewed scientific journals on these topics. She lives in Vermont with her husband, the Executive Director of LoveYourBrain Foundation, and their three children. You can learn more about her here.

    Course Instructions

    1. Click on the Contents tab to watch the course recording.
    2. Click the Take Quiz button to complete the assessment. Learners will have 3 attempts to pass and must answer at least 70% of questions correctly.
    3. Click Fill Out Survey under the Evaluation listing to provide valuable course feedback. Scroll down on all questions as there may be answer options that expand past the size of the window.
    4. Click the View/Print Your Certificate button under the Certificate listing. You can view/print your certificate at any time by visiting the APTA Learning Center and clicking the CEU Certificate/Transcript link on the left-hand side of the page. 

    Need Assistance?

    For assistance logging in, accessing activities, claiming credit, or for other questions or concerns, please e-mail learningcenter@apta.org. 

  • Concussion: The Not-So-Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
    Recorded On: 07/18/2024

    (LMS-Concussion-Traumatic-Brain-Injury) This module provides direct-access Physical Therapists with essential concepts of concussive injuries. It covers concussion phenotypes, key evaluation aspects, intervention strategies, and referral processes, emphasizing collaboration within an interdisciplinary rehabilitation team.

    This course is one out of six course offerings in the Brain Injury Certificate Series.

    This 2-hour module will deliver the core current concepts of the concussive injury for the direct-access Physical Therapist. We will review concussion phenotypes, key aspects of evaluation, intervention, and referral processes throughout the collaboration of the interdisciplinary rehabilitation team.

    Learning Objectives:

    Introduction to Concussion:

    • Identify the historical landmarks of the Concussive Injury.
    • Demonstrate knowledge of the historical and present-day medico-legal hindrance: “It’s all in your head” and its impact on patient outcomes.
    • Identify common signs and symptoms of concussion in patients utilizing an evidence informed screening tool.
    • Validate the patient’s symptom profile utilizing a comprehensive and targeted physical examination.
    • Translate the examination objectives into targeted interventions based on concussion phenotype.
    • Describe the Rehabilitative Team and Physical Therapy’s Leadership Role in Concussion Rehabilitation.

    Jessica Schwartz

    PT, DPT

    Jessica Schwartz is an award-winning orthopedic residency-trained Doctor of Physical Therapy, a national spokeswoman for the American Physical Therapy Association, founder of Concussion Corner Academy®, host of the Concussion Corner Podcast®, and a persistent post-concussion symptom survivor, advocate, and concussion educator.

    After spending a full year in rehabilitation and experiencing the profound dichotomy of being both doctor and patient, Dr. Schwartz identified gaps in concussion treatment and management in the global healthcare community. Her role has been to identify cognitive blind spots for healthcare providers focusing on comprehensive targeted physical examinations, rehabilitative teams, and concussion care management.

    Her vision is to facilitate collective competence across the healthcare continuum to better identify, treat, and care for the concussion patient of today while putting the "care back into healthcare" for this underserved patient population.

    Dr. Schwartz hopes that by educating each other about the multi-system nature of these injuries and the scopes of practices of the multidisciplinary providers that have access to and have the ability to care for this cohort of patients, she will be able to facilitate a better patient-clinician encounter.

    By speaking candidly about her experience with living with persistent post-concussion symptoms for over a decade, she hopes to facilitate learning from provider to provider, patient to provider, and caregiver to provider, honing in on the power of storytelling and collegial communication from a place of candor, evidence, and enthusiasm.

    Course Instructions

    1. Click on the Contents tab to watch the course recording.
    2. Click the Take Quiz button to complete the assessment. Learners will have 3 attempts to pass and must answer at least 70% of questions correctly.
    3. Click Fill Out Survey under the Evaluation listing to provide valuable course feedback. Scroll down on all questions as there may be answer options that expand past the size of the window.
    4. Click the View/Print Your Certificate button under the Certificate listing. You can view/print your certificate at any time by visiting the APTA Learning Center and clicking the CEU Certificate/Transcript link on the left-hand side of the page. 

    Need Assistance?

    For assistance logging in, accessing activities, claiming credit, or for other questions or concerns, please e-mail learningcenter@apta.org. 

  • Centennial Lecture Series: Get Your Head in the Game: Basic Concussion Assessment and Management

    (LMS-Centennial-Concussion) This course explores the evaluation and management of post-concussion symptoms using 5 clinical subtypes, anxiety/mood, cognitive, ocular-motor, post-traumatic migraine, and vestibular, along with the modifiers of the cervical spine and sleep.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1.6-3.8 million sports- and recreation-related concussions occur each year in the U.S. Proper evaluation and treatment may lead to a more complete and timely recovery. This course will introduce evaluation and management of post-concussion symptoms using clinical subtypes. Anxiety/Mood, Cognitive, Ocular-motor, Post-traumatic migraine, and Vestibular subtypes will be discussed, along with the modifiers of Cervical and Sleep.

    Learning Objectives:

    1. Identify common abnormal examination findings following concussion for the five clinical subtypes

    2. Identify interventions post-concussion symptoms based on clinical subtype

    3. Identify factors that contribute to prognosis and outcome following concussion

    4. Describe considerations to facilitate recovery and inform safe return to play

    Lt. Col. Carrie Hoppes

    PT, PhD, Board Certified Clinical Specialist in Neurologic Physical Therapy and Orthopaedic Physical Therapy

    LTC Carrie W. Hoppes is an Associate Professor and Director of the Army-Baylor University Doctoral Program in Physical Therapy. In addition, she provides clinical care as a guest provider at Brooke Army Medical Center’s outpatient physical therapy clinic, specializing in treatment of patients with vestibular dysfunction. She earned a DPT from the U.S. Army-Baylor University Doctoral Program in Physical Therapy in 2006 and her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 2017. Her dissertation work utilized functional near-infrared spectroscopy to study the cerebral activation of individuals with visual vertigo during optic flow. She received Board Certification in the area of Neurologic Physical Therapy from the American Physical Therapy Board of Clinical Specialties in 2013. She has served as the Chief of Inpatient Physical Therapy and Amputee Physical Therapy at major military medical centers during her 18 years in the Army. She is an instructor for the Military Vestibular Assessment and Rehabilitation course.

    Karen Lambert

    PT, DPT, Board-Certified Clinical Specialist in Neurologic Physical Therapy

    Dr. Karen H. Lambert currently serves as the Vestibular Program Manager for the Hearing Center of Excellence for the Department of Defense and Veterans Administration. In addition, she provides clinical care at a private outpatient physical therapy clinic specializing in treatment of patients with neurologic dysfunction. She earned a Master of Physical Therapy from MCP Hahnemann University in 2000 and her Doctorate of Physical Therapy from Drexel University in 2014. She received Board Certification in the area of Neurologic Physical Therapy from the American Physical Therapy Board of Clinical Specialties in 2006 and recertification in 2016. She served as the Officer in Charge of the Traumatic Brain Injury Section of Physical Therapy at Walter Reed Army Medical Center from December 2007-August 2010. She is Course Director of the Military Vestibular Assessment and Rehabilitation course and teaches proper assessment and treatment of Service members with dizziness often related to concussion.

    Course Instructions

    1. Click on the Contents tab to watch the course recording.
    2. Click the Take Quiz button to complete the assessment. Learners will have 3 attempts to pass and must answer at least 70% of questions correctly.
    3. Click Fill Out Survey under the Evaluation listing to provide valuable course feedback. Scroll down on all questions as there may be answer options that expand past the size of the window.
    4. Click the View/Print Your Certificate button under the Certificate listing. You can view/print your certificate at any time by visiting the APTA Learning Center and clicking the CEU Certificate/Transcript link on the left-hand side of the page. 

    Need Assistance?

    For assistance logging in, accessing activities, claiming credit, or for other questions or concerns, please e-mail learningcenter@apta.org. 

  • Neuromusculoskeletal Screening for the Cervical Region and Other Medical Considerations

    (LMS-VA-NMSKCX) This course, in partnership with the Veterans Administration, covers neuromuscular screening for patients with neck pain and radicular symptoms. It highlights red flags and referral patterns, emphasizing when to screen for other pathologies and when it may not be necessary.

    This course provides an overview of neuromusculoskeletal screening for the cervical region by Physical Therapists in Primary Care. Content includes differentiation of normal vs abnormal findings, examination techniques, key differentials, and provides case studies to encourage application of learning.  

    Course Outline:

    • Neck pain population – 15 min
    • Upper Extremity Neurologic Screening – 5 min
    • Pathologic reflexes  - 10 min
    • Cervical Arterial Dysfunction Screening, case study – 20 min
    • Differentials discussion and Cervical instability screening – 35 min
    • Case example – 10 min
    • Conclusion and references – 2 min 

    Christopher P. Ryer

    PT, DPT, Board-Certified Clinical Specialist in Orthopaedic Physical Therapy, Certified Spinal Manual Therapist

    Minneapolis VAMC

    Education

    Military Musculoskeletal Physical Therapy Residency 2017
    US Army Medical Center (AMEDD) – Hybrid Model
    Baylor University
    Ft Sam Houston, TX
    Doctor of Physical Therapy 2014
    University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
    Bachelors of Science in Exercise and Sports Science 2010
    Oregon State University
    Corvallis, OR

    Licensure and Certification

    Board-Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist 2018-present
    American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties
    Credentialed Clinical Instructor 2018
    American Physical Therapy Association
    Certified Spinal Manual Therapist 2017
    International Spine and Pain Institute
    Level I Dry Needling Certification 2016
    U.S. Army-Baylor - Division of Physical Therapy
    Minnesota State Board of Physical Therapy
    • License – 9758 2014-present
    AHA BLS for Healthcare Providers/AED 2015-present

    Course Instructions

    1. Click on the Contents tab to watch the course recording.
    2. Click the Take Quiz button to complete the assessment. Learners will have 3 attempts to pass and must answer at least 70% of questions correctly.
    3. Click Fill Out Survey under the Evaluation listing to provide valuable course feedback. Scroll down on all questions as there may be answer options that expand past the size of the window.
    4. Click the View/Print Your Certificate button under the Certificate listing. You can view/print your certificate at any time by visiting the APTA Learning Center and clicking the CEU Certificate/Transcript link on the left-hand side of the page. 

    Need Assistance?

    For assistance logging in, accessing activities, claiming credit, or for other questions or concerns, please e-mail learningcenter@apta.org. 

Testimonials

"Thank you for a very informative webinar. I thought it was valuable that the information was presented by someone who has lived experience."
"I'm a current SPTA and this was very informative and interesting to learn TBI interventions"

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