Knowledge Translation in Cancer Rehabilitation

Course Overview

It has been shown repeatedly in clinical trials that moderate-intensity exercise can help to minimize many side effects of cancer treatment. These include symptoms such as pain, fatigue, nausea, overall functioning and quality of life.

Despite this evidence, less than 30% of this population participates in regular physical activity. These levels are even lower in certain sub-populations of this group.

As health care professionals who specialize in exercise prescription, manual therapy, and other natural means, physiotherapists help individuals to manage many forms of symptoms and side effects. Currently across Canada, the use of exercise and physiotherapy practices in cancer care is inconsistent.

Many patients are not exposed to the need or importance of maintaining physical fitness during and after cancer treatment. This session will explore the reasons for this knowledge gap.

In this online physiotherapy course, we will explore the current evidence in terms of the barriers and facilitators to exercise from the patients’ and health professionals’ perspectives, as well as novel strategies that physiotherapists can use in clinical practice to close this knowledge gap.

Topics of discussion will include:

• The location, availability, and accessibility of exercise programs for all individuals with cancer
• How to access hard to reach populations
• How to include concurrent disease-specific self-management programs with exercise interventions
• The Prospective Care Model to incorporate physiotherapy early in the course of the cancer treatment
• An introduction to novel and unique knowledge translation tools (such as smartphone applications) for this population.

It is hoped that this session will spur discussion among professionals across the country for sharing ideas and solutions to the current evidence-to-practice gap. Prior basic knowledge of concepts and terms will be helpful but is not required.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify common barriers and facilitators to exercise from the perspective of the patient and the health care professional.
2. Describe novel knowledge translation strategies to incorporate exercise evidence into clinical practice in cancer care.
3. Apply knowledge translation strategies into their clinical practice for all individuals with cancer.
4. Recognize future research needs in this area.

The Presenters

Jenna Smith, PT

Jenna is a physiotherapist who graduated from McMaster University in 2009. Since then, she has worked at an outpatient clinic in Hamilton, Ontario where she has treated individuals with a variety of orthopedic and chronic conditions.

Jenna is currently completing her Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Science at McMaster where her research will focus on knowledge translation strategies in breast cancer rehabilitation. Through her research, she hopes to use new techniques to engage more Canadians with cancer in regular exercise to help them manage the common physical and emotional side effects of their treatment. Jenna’s other research interests are in the use of self-management programs for this population and engaging ‘hard to reach’ populations in cancer care.

Julie Richardson, PhD

Julie is a Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University. She is a physiotherapist and has a Master’s degree in Psychology from the University of Otago, New Zealand and a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of Toronto. She teaches Community Health/Community Practice in the Physiotherapy Program which includes approaches to the prevention and management of the chronic disease. She also teaches Research Methodology and a course about Chronic Disease in the Rehabilitation Science Graduate Program.

Her research interests include identifying persons at risk for functional decline and rehabilitation interventions to prevent functional decline and maintain health status in persons with chronic illness. She also works with family physicians around the assessment of preclinical disability to teach seniors how to avoid falls and maintain their mobility.

Recent work has involved clinical trials that have examined complex rehabilitation interventions in primary care settings and have included behavioral, educational and self-management interventions to maximize function, health status and quality of life for persons with chronic illness.

This course is brought to you by the Oncology Division of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association (CPA).