Episode 100 - Jason Ward, Part 1: My Journey

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Jason Ward MPT, Cert MDT

Jason attended and graduated from Harding University for his undergraduate work and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center - Memphis with a masters in physical therapy in 2001.  He credentialed in Mechanical Diagnosis & Therapy in 2006.  He and a partner opened a private practice in 2007 and Jason and Boyd discuss challenges and experiences that have come from that.  He talks about his participation as a co-author under the leadership of Mark Werneke and Dennis Hart in publishing the winner of the John Medeiros Distinguished Authorship Award for the best clinical paper published in the Journal of Manual and Manipulative Therapy in 2010.  He shares how he founded the Mechanical Care Forum in 2014 and what he’s learned from interviewing over 50 leaders in mechanical and manual therapy from all over the world.

Show Notes

Personal Background

Jason grew up in Illinois and now lives and works in the Memphis, Tennessee area of the USA.  He and his wife have four daughters and outside of his work he enjoys trail riding on his bike, crossfit, hunting and fishing.  

 

Professional Background

Jason attended and graduated from Harding University for his undergraduate work and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center - Memphis with a masters in physical therapy in 2001.  He credentialed in Mechanical Diagnosis & Therapy in 2006.  He and a partner opened a private practice in 2007 and Jason and Boyd discuss challenges and experiences that have come from that.  He talks about his participation as a co-author under the leadership of Mark Werneke and Dennis Hart in publishing the winner of the John Medeiros Distinguished Authorship Award for the best clinical paper published in the Journal of Manual and Manipulative Therapy in 2010.  He shares how he founded the Mechanical Care Forum in 2014 and what he’s learned from interviewing over 50 leaders in mechanical and manual therapy from all over the world. 

 

Short-term Mission Work

Jason shares his experience with participating in a medical mission work and delivering therapy during a medical clinic in Cusco, Peru. He discusses the effectiveness and the ability to make a lasting change for people who have no access to care.

 

Starting a Podcast

Jason shares what led him to begin this journey and start a podcast, even with no prior experience of audio or video production.  

 

Collecting Outcomes

Boyd and Jason discuss thoughts and experience on collecting outcomes either through a formal, more sophisticated means as in with Focus on Therapeutic Outcomes, Inc (FOTO) or more informal, situation or clinic-specific means.  Benefits, important considerations and challenges are tossed around.

 

Case Conversations

Jason revisits the reason for his creation of Case Conversations, an audio informational resource where he discusses actual patient cases and gets the advice, viewpoints and considerations related to history-taking, physical exam, treatment and education in a real-practice situation from guest experts.  He explains why and how he decided to create this resource and where he hopes to take this in the future.

 

Participating in Research

Boyd asks about Jason’s involvement in research and what he has learned in participating in this effort.  Jason shares what impressed him about Mark Werneke and the late Dr. Dennis Hart and their determination, work ethic and creativity in designing the studies in which he’s participated.

 

Ruminating on Payment Systems

Finally, Boyd and Jason discuss the challenges, frustrations and strategies in dealing with the current payment systems.  The ideas of what we can do in light of the payment systemof fee-for-service are addressed and the contrast of continuing in the third party payment world versus entertaining the idea of looking into cash-based arrangements.  

We hope to deliver this content to the committed professional who wants to improve his/her care and we hope to do it in a way that is easily accessible, the world over, in today's technological age.

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