Healthcare Matters

by Doug McGinnis

Healthcare Matters

In Clarkson’s graduate programs in the health sciences, students learn to ask the right questions and find patient-centered solutions.

A man with a spinal cord injury wants to watch wildlife in the meadow next to his home, but he lacks the strength to hold binoculars. So a Clarkson professor and one of her students devised a framework that holds the binoculars and includes a set of levers to move them.

Assistive technology like this is being developed through Clarkson’s two-year-old Occupational Therapy (OT) program, the latest addition to the University’s growing number of health sciences programs.

Clarkson now trains occupational therapists, physical therapists and physician assistants in three graduate degree programs based at the Potsdam campus.

These healthcare specialties are critical to improving the health, lives and independence of millions of Americans, including those affected by or living with limited mobility or chronic illnesses.

They are also among the best career options, based on satisfaction, salary potential and projected growth. All three are listed in the top 25 of U.S. News & World Report’s Best Careers 2017.

Clarkson began its move into healthcare some 18 years ago with the introduction of a master’s program in physical therapy (MPT) in 1999. Seven years later, the MPT transitioned into a doctoral degree program (DPT).

Like all students in health sciences programs, DPT students must complete rigorous coursework and fieldwork assignments at hospitals and clinics throughout the U.S. and pass state board exams upon graduation.

While Physical Therapy (PT) programs are widely offered across the country, Clarkson’s program is one of the few that offers a problem-based learning curriculum. “All our learning is based around cases that students have to solve,” says Professor George Fulk, chair of the Department of Physical Therapy and associate dean of health sciences.

The faculty creates these cases from actual incidents. Sometimes the problems are multifaceted, adding a layer of complexity for the student teams. For instance, in addition to a physical disability, patients may also have depression. In each case, students, working in groups of six to eight, come up with solutions to best help the patient.

This approach differs radically from the educational methods employed elsewhere. “Our

program is pretty much 100 percent problem-based,” says who have had a stroke or traumatic brain injury. Fulk. “Only a small percentage of other PT programs use In order to fully utilize problem-solving methods, this method at all.” The rationale for Clarkson’s approach students must learn a lot. For spinal cord injuries, for is practical; when students go into practice, they will example, students must know anatomy, the structure inevitably encounter problems they didn’t learn about in of the spinal cord and how it connects to the brain. school. The problem-solving method teaches them how They must also know the medications that spinal-cord to deal with the unknown. “They have to be able to figure patients are prescribed and understand issues related to it out,” says Fulk, who teaches courses dealing with people wheelchair mobility. And they must learn how to talk to patients. “It really “All our learning is based around cases that students have to solve,” comes down to, says Professor George Fulk, chair of the Department of Physical How do I ask the right questions?” Therapy and associate dean of health sciences. says Fulk. In 2012, Clarkson added Physician Assistant (PA) Studies to its portfolio of healthcare programs. With 28 months of training, program graduates effectively function as doctors in a wide variety of areas. They see patients, make diagnoses and write prescriptions, for example. Depending on their training, they can also perform some minor procedures.

“We know 80 percent of what doctors know,” says Keith Young, clinical associate professor and chair of the Department of Physician Assistant Studies. PAs work under a doctor’s supervision. Annual salaries range from $75,000 a year for a PA in pediatrics to $150,000 for a PA on an open-heart surgical team.

The advent of physician assistants represents a radical shift in the way medicine is practiced. Years ago, medicine was the province of doctors. Today, PAs are a recognized medical specialty, certified in all 50 states. PA programs at Clarkson and elsewhere offer master’s degrees, and all entering students must have at least a bachelor’s degree. Many also have on-the-job experience in some field of healthcare.

“We might get nurses, paramedics and respiratory therapists,” says Young, who worked as a paramedic and respiratory therapist before earning his PA master’s degree from the University of Nebraska.

In 2015, Clarkson added OT to its health sciences roster. Occupational therapy helps some of the same patients as physical therapy, but in a very different way. While physical therapy may deal with mobility issues from strokes and accidents, occupational therapy may work with the same patients to fill voids left by their disabilities. “We ask, What would you like to be doing that would bring you full satisfaction?” says Associate Professor Victoria Priganc, who serves as chair of the Department of Occupational Therapy and director of the program.

The answer to that may require some sort of ingenious device, such as the apparatus that enabled a spinal cord patient to use binoculars. Toward that end, Clarkson created the Assistive Technology Resource & Education Center, which is open to the entire University and the public. The Center is a showroom where people

“It benefits students to have faculty who are practicing clinicians.” — Prof. Leslie Russek

can view the latest technology for individuals who have experienced strokes, accidents or other causes of physical and cognitive impairment. But it is also a laboratory for developing new devices, some of which may have commercial potential.

The lab is equipped with a variety of low- and high-tech supplies and equipment, including two 3-D printers. It is a space where Clarkson’s health sciences, science and engineering students and faculty collaborate. The Center is also open to outside healthcare specialists and scientists.

The University’s commitment to developing healthcare breakthroughs is reflected in its support of interdisciplinary research undertaken by Clarkson’s engineering, sciences and health sciences programs. In addition to the Assistive Technology Resource & Education Center, interdisciplinary research and educational programs are also supported through the Center for Rehabilitation Engineering Science & Technology (CREST).

Since joining the Clarkson faculty in 2002, George Fulk has collaborated with researchers from the University’s Wallace H. Coulter School of Engineering to develop novel technologies to monitor walking activity and ambulatory assistive devices for people who have had strokes or are living with other neurological conditions.

“The links between engineering and health sciences allow us to solve problems in unique and exciting ways,” he says. “Clarkson’s strong programs in the health professions and engineering makes the University an ideal place to find patient-centered, technological solutions.”

Expertise in the Field

Associate Professor of Physical Therapy Leslie Russek is an expert in joint hypermobility syndrome/hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS).

The condition is most noticeable in the connective tissue of joints and skin; people have extra-flexible joints that often sprain or dislocate and skin that doesn’t heal properly. hEDS often leads to chronic pain due to joint, muscle or nerve problems.

Russek treats people with hEDS from all over the country. “We can’t make them less hypermobile, but we can teach them how to take care of their bodies to avoid pain and tissue damage.”

Russek teaches courses related to physiology and kinesiology. Her clinical area is orthopedics, including joints and headaches; her specialty areas are chronic pain and hypermobility.

“It benefits students to have faculty who are practicing clinicians,” she says. “They appreciate it when you relate classroom activities to a patient you saw earlier in the week.”