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Classified Massage Therapy Research January 2016

Australian magic!

The Australian Association of Massage Therapists have posted their newly-updated massage therapy research document, organized into handy topics.

It’s arranged by category, with these tables of citations:

Safety and cost effectiveness Cancer Chronic pain Myofascial pain Low back pain Neck and shoulder pain Headache and migraine Fibromyalgia Arthritis Orthopaedics Spinal cord injury Hypertension and circulation Diabetes Immune function Mood and sleep Operative/post-operative HIV/AIDS Constipation Scars Pregnancy/labour/post-natal Infant/Paediatric Older adults Athletes/sport/exercise Workers Technology Education and practice Workforce development Usage Miscellaneous

The tables even note where each study fits on the hierarchy of evidence–pretty handy!

#massage therapy #research #evidence #evidence based practice

Amanda made this helpful series of quick vids to help RMTBC members use their library!

#ebsco #library research #evidence based practice

Teaser of Primal Pictures 3D anatomical images. Check out the video tutorial to see how RMTBC members can access it on the website.

#anatomy #anatomical images #rmtbc

6-second demo of citing an article in EBSCO

#ebsco #rmtbc #citation #apa

Some great updates to Primal Pictures Anatomical Images, in the RMTBC online library. RMTBC member? Log in to check it out!

#rmtbc #anatomy

Classified Massage Therapy Research: January 2015

Our antipodean counterparts have done it again!

Check out Classified Massage Therapy Research January 2015. As they do every year, the Australian Association of Massage Therapists have organized a mass of research into one big easily-eyeballed document.

It's arranged by category, with tables of citations on these topics:

The tables even note where each study fits on the hierarchy of evidence--pretty handy!

#massage therapy #massagetherapy #research #evidence based practice

BC RMTs: Where are they?

Patient needing an RMT in your area? New massage therapy grad wanting to set up shop? Looking for clinics--either as potential workplaces, or to make sure the market isn't too crowded? There are a few places to find information:

Find an RMT on rmtbc.ca At Find an RMT, click a region with the drop-down or enter a postal code, then click Search. RMTBC members are mapped out, with contact information listed below.

Municipalities' Business Licenses Some larger municipalities--eg Nanaimo, Kamloops & Vancouver--provide lists of business licenses they've issued. Victoria maps its businesses with VicMap, which includes a business license directory.

The attached screengrab shows how to search for a specific word within an Excel worksheet. Nanaimo is the example here:

See links to more municipal websites here.

#Business #business plan #victoria #nanaimo #vancouver #kamloops

Access video collections on the RMTBC website: Sports Medicine & Exercise Science, or Rehabilitation Therapy.

RMTBC online library videos: Sports medicine

RMTBC member? Have you checked out the video collections in our online library?

Research use by massage therapists

Did you know there've been studies on Canadian massage therapists' use of research evidence?

In both unregulated (AB) and regulated (MB, ON) provinces, the findings were similar: massage therapists are open to using research, but not all of them have the time and/or knowledge to locate and access it. The studies are cited--including some links to full text--below.

At the RMTBC, we're helping members with research literacy and use. We're arranging an in-person 'road show' of the province, to demonstrate tips & tricks for research literacy, and how to implement evidence in practice (spring 2015).

Ability to find and use research is, after all, a core competency!

And our research director recently co-presented the webinar Examples from the field: Everyday use of research in practice, that includes his own tips for keeping up to date.

Hanna, S. (2008) Researching. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Selected Studies

Baskwill, A. (2014). Awareness of the Evidence for Practice of Registered Massage Therapists in Ontario (Master of science dissertation).

College of Massage Therapists of British Columbia (2010). Applications of research to practice: Performance objectives in CMTBC Guidelines for foundational knowledge in massage therapy educational programs. Entry to practice requirements.

Colleges of Massage Therapists of BC, NL, and ON (2012). Inter-jurisdictional practice competencies and performance indicators for massage therapists at entry-to-practice. Entry to practice requirements.

Gowan-Moody, D. M. (2010). Research perceptions and utilization among massage therapists in Saskatchewan, Canada (Master of science dissertation).

Gowan-Moody, D. M., Leis, A. M., Abonyi, S., Epstein, M., & Premkumar, K. (2012). Research utilization and evidence-based practice among Saskatchewan massage therapists. Journal of Complementary and Integrative Medicine, 10(1), 189-198.

Suter, E., Vanderheyden, L. C., Trojan, L. S., Verhoef, M. J., & Armitage, G. D. (2007). How important is research-based practice to chiropractors and massage therapists?. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 30(2), 109-115.

#research tips

New article: Investigating the role of massage in inflammation and healing processes

A recent article outlines a theory about how massage therapy works in relationship to inflammation and the healing process. It’s a review article, so the authors summarize relevant points from a range of other research pieces. The full text of the article is available for free online, so you shouldn’t take our word on the article when you can download it, to read and evaluate for yourself.

Investigating the mechanisms of massage efficacy: The role of mechanical immunomodulation draws on existing research to explain the physiological processes following injury. It describes what occurs in the body as a result of muscle injury, particularly the inflammatory processes and afferent nerve response. The authors outline their own theory of how massage helps the body heal, drawing on research from a range of disciplines. The authors do cite some of their own research, but since there isn’t a lot written on this exact topic, we can’t fault them for highlighting what is out there!

While this article does not describe outcomes of massage in a clinical environment, it does provide some interesting food for thought. So when you’ve got a bit of time, read it over, and then contemplate their explanation of the mechanisms underpinning massage therapy and post-injury healing.

pete. (2007). Sore muscles. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Referenced Waters-Banker, C., Dupont-Versteegden, E., Kitzman, P., & Butterfield, T. (2014). Investigating the mechanisms of massage efficacy: the role of mechanical immunomodulation. Journal of Athletic Training, 49(2), 266-273. doi:10.4085/1062-6050-49.2.25

Thanks to Michael Reoch, RMT, for spotting this article and forwarding it to the RMTBC research department.

Massage Therapy Research 2014

Kudos to the Australian Association of Massage Therapists for doing it again with Classified Massage Therapy Research 2014!

A State of the evidence provides a quick overview of recent massage therapy research. Then comes the serious business; they organize a tonne of articles!

The massage therapy research is arranged by category, with a table of article citations on all of these topics:

Safety and cost effectiveness

Cancer

Chronic pain

Myofascial pain

Low back pain

Neck and shoulder pain

Headache and migraine

Fibromyalgia

Arthritis

Orthopaedics

Spinal cord injury

Hypertension and circulation

Diabetes

Immune function

Mood and sleep

Operative/post-operative

HIV/AIDS

Constipation

Scars

Pregnancy/labour/post-natal

Infant/Paediatric

Older adults

Athletes/sport/exercise

Workers

Technology

Workforce development

Usage

Miscellaneous

#massage therapy #research #evidence based practice

Practice building tip: Find massage therapy business licenses for Vancouver

Want to find out where, and how many, massage therapy practices there are in the Vancouver?

The city of Vancouver lets you download a list of business licenses (scroll to the bottom of the page and select a file to download). Scroll through to find the listings for massage therapy.

This is part of the city's participation in the Open Data movement. Click View the list of datasets to check out other stuff in Vancouver's open data catalogue, like the locations of farmers' markets, locations of accessible parking spots, or lists of trees by neighbourhood.

#business #business plan #vancouver #open data

Happy Valentine's Day! Love your library research!

#valentine's day #hearts

Practice building tip: Find clinics in Victoria

Wondering how many clinics are in Victoria, BC?

VicMap lets you search for all businesses in a category, by type or by keyword.

Check out the 1-minute tutorial:

#victoria #maps #business #clinics #business plan

Scholarly journal articles: What're those?

Scientific studies help us advance our understanding of the world around us. Researchers do the best they can to investigate a question or problem, and then write up the results.

If a study is in a peer reviewed journal, the journal's editors send each research article out to a few other experts in the field, to examine. Often the reviewers will suggest improvements for the authors to make before publishing. Or they might decide not to publish the article at all.

Articles are not all created equal. Check to see that the abstract actually matches up with the article. Also look at things like sample size, and potential bias of the researchers.

Some characteristics of research articles:

A very specific title, or at least a clearly-stated and identifiable research question

Labelled sections such as an abstract, literature review, findings, and discussion

A bibliography/references list--often lengthy--at the end of the paper

Published in a specific journal--not a magazine. The word "journal" might even be in the title.

If you're searching for articles in an EBSCO database, check Peer reviewed, to eliminate all search results that aren't scholarly:

Read Just what IS ‘peer-review’, exactly? over at Evidence Based Fitness for a more detailed explanation of the peer review process & its weaknesses.

#scholarly #peer review #ebsco

Professional publications: What are they?

Professional magazines teach you about what's going on in your field.

Some of these magazines have info that's really useful! RMT Matters, for example, is published by the MTABC & often includes stuff like:

insurance issues, from a BC or Canadian perspective

articles by a BC lawyer, eg on protecting your patients' privacy

student case study write-ups (the prize-winners!)

But these publications are not research journals.

Use these publications to stay up-to-date in your field, but don't look for original peer-reviewed research trials or systematic review articles. They also contain ads.

Time to "bone up on" some stretching techniques and learn more about the upcoming Pain Management conference in Richmond,BC.

Not peer reviewed Students often ask for articles from Massage Magazine, a publication from the US. It is indexed in SportDISCUS (one of our EBSCO health sciences databases), but note that the Massage Magazine articles vanish from your results list as soon as you check the Peer Reviewed box (on the left of your search results).

Reading Massage Magazine is fine for practice management ideas or to learn about new products. But it's not vetted for scientific rigor and quality, like articles that go through the peer review process.

And if you're a student: it's not going to count if your instructor wants you to use peer-reviewed articles for an assignment or case study!

#magazines #rmt matters

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