From February 12th – 15th over 18,000 attendees from over 30 countries convened in Denver, CO to join industry kin for the American Physical Therapy Association’s (APTA) annual Combined Sections Meeting (CSM). We engaged in over 250+ events, exhibited industry focused products and career opportunities, dove into continued education programs, and recognized peers for their accomplishments and continued efforts to keep physical therapy and rehab therapy at the tip of healthcare innovation. This year’s conference even set a new attendance record that further demonstrates the state of our industry is as large and strong as ever.
And yes, there were black bear sightings! … (only kidding)
All joking aside, four short days of the CSM conference was jam-packed and CORA was on hand for it all, represented in full force at Booth No. 2033! From our award winners, to our team at the health booth and to our impact locally and abroad – let’s check out some of our highlights from 2020 CSM.
Dr. Ian Young PT, DSc, OCS, SCS Celebrates JOSPT Guy G. Simoneau Excellence in Research Award
This year we start with a very prestigious acknowledgment of one of our own CORA team members, Dr. Ian Young for receiving the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy’s (JOSPT) Guy Simoneau Excellence in Research Award! This is also the second time that Dr. Ian Young has won this award. He and his fellow researcher’s won this year’s award based on their publication Upper Cervical and Upper Thoracic Thrust Manipulation Versus Nonthrust Mobilization in Patients with Mechanical Neck Pain: A Mulicenter Randomized Clinical Trial that can be viewed in its entirety here.
From all of us at CORA, we are so proud of you and your clinical research group, Ian!
CORA Therapists Officially Introduced as Board-Certified Clinical Specialists
Next we highlight how APTA recognized our CORA team members that received clinical certifications in Orthopaedic Physical Therapy (OCS). Applicants for OCS must complete a rigorous amount of work to even apply! After that, they go through hours and hours of study and direct to patient clinical applications before they must finish their certification by passing through the Board. Take a look at our elated crew newly minted as Board-Certified Orthopaedic Clinical Specialists at the APTA Opening Awards Ceremony.
Special shout out to our 10 CORA team members who became 2019 CORA Orthopaedic Certified Specialists (OCS). We are so proud of you all!
- Marivic Change, PT, DPT, OCS, MTC, CKTP
- Kimberly Ruth, PT, MPT, OCS
- Casey Robinson-Bulllock, PT, DPT, OCS, CVT, Cert. DN
- Aaron Tillman, PT, DPT, LAT, ATC, OCS, ASTYM, SFMA Lvl 1, WorkSteps Cert.
- Erik Karpinski, PT, DPT, OCS, Cert. DN, CSCS
- Christine Mara, PT, DPT, OCS, ATC
- Paul McNally, PT, DPT, OCS, Cert. DN, ASTYM Cert.
- Brittney Everhart, PT, DPT, OCS
- Janette Fuentes, PT, DPT, OCS
- Anju Dheer, PT, OCS
The CORA Health Booth and Exhibit Team
CSM is not only for recognition of awards (although we are extremely proud of ALL our fellow colleagues and representatives). It’s also a place where Student PTs and licensed professionals are able to walk through the CSM Exhibit Hall featuring services, technologies and career opportunities from all over the world!
In Denver, we were focused on spreading the CORA message “Treating Everyone Right!” and we sure got a chance to do that.
- We were privileged to speak with thousands of young students about CORA’s clinical rotations and how we host their continued education alongside our excellent, specially trained clinical instructors
- Attendees were challenged to connect with us socially to continue communication beyond CSM and provide them valuable content to help them become even better ambassadors and professionals. Our “CORA Listens” campaign encouraged students to let us know what matters most to them as they enter a career in physical therapy and how we can meet those challenges with unique-to-CORA benefits!
Find out about CareerTracks at CORA by visiting our Careers Page.
We Launched Our Podcast at CSM!
That’s right, CORA is starting a podcast and what better place than CSM to hear from our industry leaders? We were joined by Scott MacKenzie, voice of The Industrial Talk Podcast, to provide educational content, talk with APTA staff, and spark the conversation with forward-thinking industry experts such as Dr. Adriaan Louw of Evidence in Motion, APTA Executive Vice President Jason Bellamy, and Pain Science Fellow, Jessie Podolak, DPT just to name a few.
Check back for some incredible, EXCLUSIVE content coming soon!
The #APTAStep Challenge + Denver’s LuBird’s Light Foundation
For the past three years, APTA challenged its CSM attendees to move by creating the #APTAstep Challenge. This challenges encourages people to move around the massive event and track their steps on a personal level and as a collective group. This year, we aimed to set a new record and asked participants to total their steps of 150,000,000! That’s 2 comma’s, yes millions! With a record setting year and the amount of activities and energy 2020 CSM brought – we not only met that goal – we zoomed right past it ending with 169,154,401 steps!
More importantly, thanks to the APTA and CORA sponsoring this event we were able to partner with local foundation LuBird’s Light! LuBird’s is a Denver group that helps ensure that all kids – no matter what they are going through – have the chance to play.
We encourage you to learn more about LuBird’s Light Foundation and ask that you consider supporting such a wonderful cause all year-round.
To all of our friends and PT professionals, we thank you for making 2020 APTA CSM bigger and better than ever! To all of our colleagues, board-certified specialists and award winners, we congratulate you on your incredible accomplishments! It’s an exciting and energetic time to be a part of something much bigger than us; a purpose greater than any single individual. So cheers to 2021, and what lies ahead in our industry!
Come engage with us at one of more than 200 conveniently located CORA clinics!
