PHT 6730 Differential Diagnosis

This course is designed to provide the student with knowledge and skills to competently screen patients for non-neuromusculoskeletal conditions, interpret clinical findings, and make sound clinical judgments that include providing appropriate referral when it is beyond the scope of physical therapy practice. This course will emphasize the diagnostics theory and process skills (ie, methodologies, differentials, specificity, sensitivity, likelihood ratios, gold standards, etc) to perform a complete and thorough history and relevant regional physical examination. Other topics covered will include screening for spinal comorbidities, depression, integumentary problems; interpret abnormal lab values, and selected imaging studies; understand side effects of commonly used pharmaceutical drugs, time management/documentation, and clinical mastery.