What impact does your massage therapy have on the people you care for? How do you measure that impact? Would you like a tool that can?

Massage Therapists often use functional measures (muscle length and strength, joint range-of-motion) which are helpful in providing some information. Yet, these outcomes fail to provide sufficient context regarding a person’s quality of life experience.

Imagine: What if an MT could measure – with every session – the impact of her/his care on 4 variables: pain relief, mood, mobility and vitality? What if collecting this data could guide an MT as to the efficacy of their care in affecting particular conditions and populations?

What if there was an international databank, that collected and analyzed the data from all practitioner sessions, based on meaningful, subjective feedback from our patients/clients?

“Massage therapy is found to be 83% effective in middle-aged adults suffering headaches.”

What if government policy and health care funding were shaped and directed based primarily on the client/patient experience?

Here’s a sample survey you can print and handout, or send to your patients/clients electronically in advance of your session together. Make sure to follow up at session end and see how the ratings have changed based on your massage therapy. Record them for a few weeks and analyze the results.

See what you can learn about your client’s/patient’s practice experience.  Let me know how you make out by leaving a comment below.  Thank you!

How do you learn and appreciate anatomy?  Did you use the Anatomy Colouring Book, or doodle, or find some other way to get it to stick in your memory?  Can we use illustration to provide better representation of what we feel under our fingers, to give the public an in vivo look into the engagement of hands-to-body?

Calling all amateur anatomical illustrationalists out there…share your artwork!

How well do your patients/clients respond to care?  How do you know?

We all hope we are doing a good job, and that people have a wonderful experience.  However, we may not hear back on an adverse reaction, the level of reduction in symptoms, or an unexpected benefit (reduction in anxiety, better sleep quality) that a person may experience as a result of our session together.

Perhaps you can consider designing a survey, like the example below I did on SurveyMonkey.

With a free service like SurveyMonkey (upgrade to paid premium service is available) you can dig deeper into the experience and outcomes of those you provide care for.

SurveyMonkey provides a variety of formats for answers  – checkbox, multiple choice, slider-scale, text box – so you can design a survey to solicit feedback anonymously.  You simply provide the survey link by email after each session, and stop in to analyze your results every week.

Can you imagine the anecdotal evidence the profession would gain if we all applied surveys?

I’m running a survey for 6 weeks to gain some valuable insight.  If you conduct a survey, please comment below and let the community know of your interesting findings!

Attending the RMTAO’s 2017 Educator Day at the Education Conference, I watched with interest the response to moderator Pam Fitch’s question, “who in the room has obtained a master’s degree or PhD?” A small number of hands in a room full of educators went up. With so few attaining this level of education, I wondered about the opportunities and challenges for RMTs who advance their education.

A visit with Donelda Gowan – a doctorally-prepared massage therapist and recipient of the RMTAO’s research award – confirmed concerns that highly educated RMTs face barriers in sharing knowledge. Donelda is adamant highly-educated RMTs must be supported in injecting knowledge and perspective gained back into the field – assisting its growth and professional culture. In her RMTAO research award acceptance speech, Gowan emphasized, “Massage therapy research must be informed by Massage Therapists.”

Highly educated RMTs may feel pressure to leave massage therapy in pursuit of research and academic positions in related fields. Such a “brain-drain” and limited opportunities for research and knowledge transfer should concern us all in limiting the growth and potential of our field.

I invited a group of six RMTs with high academic standing – some educators, others researcher or practitioner status – to address the following questions:

1. What opportunities exist for RMTs that pursue higher education?
2. What barriers remain to advancement in the MT field, particularly in education, research or influencing community health and social policy?
3. How can stakeholders in the profession support opportunities for practitioners attaining higher education?
4. How can your talents, experiences and education be most effectively used for the advancement of the profession?

At the table we had Beth Barberree, Trish Dryden, Cathy Fournier, Donelda Gowan, Ania Kania-Richmond, and Martha Brown Menard

Read the full article

Are you overwhelmed with the operations-side of running a practice?  Have you inherited a mixed bag of useful practice tips coupled with antiquated and even incorrect guidance?

Would you benefit from a how-to manual from start-to-finish, coaching you along the way in the development of your practice?  Can you use a resource that bridges to the higher level you aspire to?

Building on my 28 years of experience in practice, coupled with speaking to hundreds of practitioners across North America, I’m putting together a progressive Practice Operations workbook for massage therapists.

Each module provides theoretical constructs, real-life examples and reflective exercises to move you forward while honouring your past.

The best resource, of course, would be designed by you…for you.  Even if you’ve been in practice for many years (and perhaps especially for you), I want to reconfigure your feelings of isolation and frustration.  If you’re closer to the entry-level part of practice, all the better.  You can start off on the right foot and fast-track your progression.

Here’s what I need from you:  Have a look at this rough outline.  Would this progressively meet your needs, at whatever stage you’re at?  What specifically would you like to see included in the program?

What have been your practice challenges?  What pearls of wisdom would you like to share with others?

Entry-Level: Practitioner Physical and Security Needs

1) Profile – We start with you.  Reflective exercises tease out personal and professional talents that demonstrate your unique competence, experiences and skillsets as you lay the foundation upon which to build your professional career.

2) Provisions – Account for all assets you bring to the table – capital, contacts, business competence as commitment to see it through.  Evaluate if you have sufficient resources to launch your own practice, or would instead excel apprenticing in an established enterprise.

3) Purpose, Passion, Position in the Marketplace and Workplace – What do you bring to the marketplace?  Why does your product/service matter?  What populations do you serve?  What is your role in the workplace?  What are the values that guide your practice?  We drill down to your core beliefs so you can best position your practice launch.

4) Product, Pricing and Place – Define your “product” and how it will be packaged and presented.  Consider pricing theory and strategies while you contemplate the place (sector/delivery-of-care model) you will incorporate in your practice.

5) Promotion – Learn how to recruit prospective patrons, retain them for the long-term, reward patron behaviour that builds your practice, and re-serve (serve again) those patrons who would buy more from you.

6) Profit – Track key financial metrics, build financial competence, nurture growth and positive cash flow.  Unless your practice is just a hobby, you’ll need profit for growth, contingency and retirement.

Established: Professional Esteem, Relationships and Processes

7) and 8) Practitioner Relations – What role do you play in working with others?  What are your expectations?  Theirs?  Before you sign on the dotted line, consider the implications of the business agreement you’re entering into.  Learn how to strengthen relationships with your work mates and support staff.  If you’re a business owner, effectively scale up to incorporate practitioners into your enterprise.

9) Perspective – Comprehend the extrinsic factors that influence your practice viability – government policy and funding, insurance industry and gatekeeper health practitioner relations, public and media endorsement, competitors and profiteers.  Explore the profession’s culture and essential stakeholders as they exercise influence on your practice.

10) Promises and processes – Set practice policies and processes that deliver on your quality of care.  Consider regulations and laws that govern your practice.

Actualized: Professional and Personal Maturation

11) Potential – Evaluate and entertain delivery-of-care models, discuss how to use tools, team and technology to reduce strain while increasing work capacity and income potential.  Consider how to generate other sources of income.

12) Public & Private Good – Consider your contribution to public health and wellness initiatives, while nurturing the private good in your own well-being.

Write me with your suggestions at don@dondillon-RMT.com.  Let’s elevate the profession together.

Salutations my fellow practitioners!

I need your help.  I’m working diligently on a considerable update to the 2010 book Massage Therapist Practice: Start, Sustain, Succeed.  The thoroughly revised manual will have 12 modules, building from entry-level practice to upper-level practice development.

I’ll release a table of contents for the book soon, but for now I’d like to get some feedback on the section called “Place”.

Place is one of the 4 variables in the marketing mix theory (the others being product, pricing and promotion) and I’m attempting to capture the nuances between different workspaces / market sectors served by massage practitioners and how services are delivered.

Specifically I write about design differences between the market sectors, plus upside and downside of working in each.  I would greatly appreciate feedback on the following short document to see if I’ve missed or misrepresented anything.  Click here ymtp_place

Write me at don@MassageTherapistPractice.com or visit the Facebook discussion at https://www.facebook.com/Massage-Therapist-Practice-222743724456748/

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

don

p.s.  I promise my face will not be on the cover this time…it will be tucked away in the book somewhere, much smaller, hardly noticeable.

I’ve been deliberating for some time over whether to raise my professional service fees.  My practice is located in a small city where an automaker – the major industry in this town – laid off thousands of workers years ago.  Tourism and other industries have suffered, and I suspect many shopkeepers and service providers have wrestled with their pricing decisions for fear of customer reprisal.  It causes me to reflect on how I, and indeed my colleagues, set pricing.

How do we set our pricing?  Is pricing based on the type of massage or sector served (rehabilitation, spa, integrated wellness, in-chair massage)?  Time-length of session?  Inputs of labour or added elements like hydro\electric therapies or special hand-tools?  Are some outcomes (pain reduction, better mobility) more valuable than others (reduced anxiety, relaxation, better sleep quality)?

What role does wealth of the local economy, reliance on generous employee benefit plans, competition with peers or other services promising similar benefit play?  What are our own beliefs about the value of our work, our relationship and experiences with money, and what we believe patrons are willing to pay?

Pricing is how the practitioner “captures” the value they offer to the marketplace.  “Price transmits the most important signal to the customer…what the (practitioner) believes the product is worth”, states Ronald J. Baker, author of Pricing on Purpose:  Creating and Capturing Value.  Read the whole article at Massage Therapy Canada magazine

On the Canada Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) program Cross-Country Check-Up May 1st, a discussion on whether tighter regulations for alternative health care ensued. This was prompted on the recent conviction of the parents of Ezekiel Stephan. Ezekiel died when his parents refused to take him to a physician despite life-threatening symptoms and instead administered homeopathic remedies.

You can find the full broadcast at http://www.cbc.ca/radio/checkup/should-alternative-healing-be-more-tightly-regulated-1.3557679

Part of my submission was read on-air (43:06 into broadcast) and my full submission follows below.

re: Should Alternative Health be More Tightly Regulated?

Yes. Yet, there’s a better question, “Do Canadians have access to the most efficacious health care?” The case of Ezekiel Stephan and his parents is a tragic one, and could have been avoided – not by more regulation per se – but better methods at improving user information (and informed choice) and treatment efficacy.

By linking clinical outcomes via technology and reported patient experience to a national database, the public would clearly learn what methods were working and which were suspect. In an age of user experience, it would be health-care users – not political lobbyists – determining what methods were sanctioned based on efficacy.

It’s very difficult for emerging health professions to receive necessary health care funding or research dollars. These emerging professions are not included in the consideration of public health care, even when they are regulated.

Massage therapy, for example, has been regulated for almost 100 years in Ontario, the last quarter century under the Regulated Health Professions Act. Yet despite the rigors of regulation, massage therapy is not funded by Ontario’s health plan, is subject to the HST (because over half of the other provinces are not regulated), and is precluded from hospital patient care, Community Care Access Centres or public health settings. This preclusion despite evidence showing efficacy in the treatment of conditions such as lower back pain, treatment of anxiety and depression.

Massage therapy was overlooked when the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care announced its Lower Back Pain Pilot Program. The profession was later thrown a bone when the Ministry agreed to inclusion at only one of the test sites (out of seven), and treatment delivered by students at a training school, not seasoned professionals.

Western medicine has a political choke-hold on funding and government support. But medicine didn’t always have the public confidence. Before the Flexner report (1910) commissioned by the Carnegie Foundation, medical schools of varying quality operated in the marketplace. Hospitals were not seen as places of recovery, but of dying. See Patricia O’Reilly’s book “Health Care Practitioners in Canada” to see how politics played heavily in credibility and funding in health care.

People that pursue medical degrees typically come from wealthy families who provide philanthropic donations to hospitals and medical colleges. Pharmaceutical companies also inject millions of dollars into positioning their products in the application of western medicine, ultimately affecting the type of interventions that are endorsed by government.

Proponents of western medicine may cry “where’s the science?” and bemoan a paucity of research for these rival interventions. This detracts from the problem that small professions just don’t have the money.

Small professions are expected to self-fund research to prove efficacy, while western medicine is supplemented from a variety of wealthy sources. It’s a chicken-and-egg outcome for less resourced disciplines to prove themselves.

Western medicine practitioners are already working with chiropractors, massage therapists, naturopathic practitioners and a variety of what is usually termed “Complementary and Alternative Medicine” (CAM) practitioners. I concur, all these professions can and should do more to demonstrate efficacy in their approaches. But the way the system is set up now, these other professions don’t stand a chance.

The National Institutes of Health branch – National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health – is funded by the US Government to explore efficacy in alternative approaches to western medicine. I would like our government to shift from a “prove it to me” stance to a “let’s prove or denounce it together” approach.

The parents of Ezekiel Stephen made a terrible mistake. That mistake could have been avoided if our health care system truly integrated the best of various forms of medicine, funded research in emerging professions that show promise through reported direct user experiences and measurable outcomes, and governments that determine access to services based not on the politically savvy but on efficacy.