Orthopedic Primary Care: What's it all about?

Hey there, healthcare heroes!

Are you seeing a lot of patients with muscle, bone and joint conditions, but not sure about your exam skills, or what treatments you can confidently offer? Have you been referring patients to ortho specialists but have the feeling you could probably treat them in the clinic with the right skills?

Not to worry, as fellow clinicians we understand and we're here to help. We've developed our nationally accredited Orthopedic Primary Care (OPC) CE curriculum specifically to help you, your patients and your practice.

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Why musculoskeletal knowledge is key
Your patients are in pain – more than half of US adults report having a musculoskeletal condition. That’s a staggering number, greater than those with chronic circulatory conditions.

Whether it's neck pain, low back pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, or repetitive stress injuries – these are ailments that affect millions but are often inadequately addressed in primary care settings.

Why? Because most primary care clinicians lack the specialized training to effectively manage these conditions.

What our research shows
As our course creators A.J. Benham, DNP and Kathleen Geier, DNP wrote in their article in the Journal for Nurse Practitioners (JNP), primary care physicians and nurse practitioners are inadequately prepared to manage musculoskeletal problems, but their skills and confidence improve with focused musculoskeletal training. Training also can reduce unnecessary referrals to specialists.

With the ranks of orthopedic physicians decreasing and the incidence of chronic musculoskeletal conditions on the rise, effective management of these problems in primary care settings may become an increasingly important strategy for preserving access to care while reducing costs and preventing the escalation of debilitating symptoms.

To effectively manage these conditions, clinicians must be able to distinguish acute presentations of non-urgent musculoskeletal problems from true orthopedic emergencies and to know when and how to appropriately refer patients to orthopedic specialists.

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How can OPC help you?

• Orthopedic primary care (OPC) is a catalog of online, live and hybrid continuing education courses covering the fundamentals of anatomy, pathophysiology, and evidence-based treatment for common muscular skeletal conditions.
• OPC is most applicable to non-emergent relatively stable conditions, whether acute or chronic. Our courses cover a wide variety of common conditions including neck and low back pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, repetitive stress injuries and a range of metabolic inflammatory and pediatric conditions.
• You can use your new Orthopedic Primary Care skills in a variety of clinical settings; these include family health, emergency departments, urgent care clinics, occupational health centers, retail clinics and geriatric centers just to name a few. 
• You'll also enhance your ability to work with multidisciplinary teams, something that's key to quality muscular skeletal care.
  
• OPC can also help you grow and improve your practice. By some estimates, chronic musculoskeletal disorders comprise between 20 and 60 percent of primary care office visits and overall health expenditures.  These numbers are only expected to increase with the aging of the baby boom generation. There are a lot of patients out there who will need your help."
  

Courses to fit any schedule and budget
We appreciate how busy you are and how much competition there is for your time. We've designed our courses to be as flexible as possible to fit into your work and life schedule.

• 💻 Our online courses can be taken from anywhere and range from 10 hours to 65 hours of self study ($65-300 each, with discount bundles available).
• 🩺 Our live courses are 1 or 2 days each (held in the San Francisco Bay Area) ($250-300 each)
• 💻🩺 Our hybrid courses (80 hours each) are a combination of live and online study and can be taken in any order ($500 each, with discount bundles available).

We invite you to browse our updated CE shop, and please drop us a line with any questions. Meanwhile, you can also view our webinar that presents an overview of OPC and earn 1 free CE hour.

Get 1 CE free: Watch our webinar

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As always, we're here for you as your continuing education partner. Wishing you all the best on your learning journey!