Including a Physical Therapist in Your Wound Care Team

My name is Frank Aviles. I am a physical therapist and I've been treating wounds and lymphedema patients for quite some time. Currently I am the Director of Lymphatic and Wound Healing Services for Hyperbaric Physicians of Georgia. I'm also an editorial board member for Today's Wound Clinic and I spent my career trying to be the patient advocate.
 
A physical therapist as part of a team is very crucial. We all read about how an interdisciplinary team can actually produce more outcomes or better outcomes and as a physical therapist, having a seat at the table is very important because we bring a different aspect of it.
 
So of course in our schooling we learn about every body system, musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular and we're able to come up with solutions to help our patients. So we bring a different dynamic. So whether it's inpatient or outpatient we're able to bring biomechanics.
 
We can help with exercises. It's not all about walking somebody but it's actually treating the whole body. And especially now with the lymphatic system there's therapists that specialize in how to treat the lymphatics.