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Online Summit Explores Medical Massage
The first online Medical Massage Summit was held
Feb. 18 to foster discussion about the practice of medical massage.
Summit participants, who logged into a Web site for a real-time
discussion, included practitioners, educators and association administrators.
Several topics related to medical massage were
discussed during the summit; however, the primary focus was on the
need to determine exactly what medical massage is, in terms of both
technique and application.
As schools, associations, individual therapists—and
businesses purporting to teach medical-massage techniques in weekend
workshops—increasingly use the term "medical massage,"
the need to define the practice is seen as essential by many in
the profession. Likewise, summit participants decided that defining
medical massage is a vital step on the path toward shaping this
massage specialty.
"I think we need to develop sound standards
of care on which we can base our therapeutic sessions," wrote
John Balletto, president of the Massage Therapy Foundation, an organization
that promotes massage research. "The challenge is how to get
there. We really need to have some consensus on our standards of
care."
Those who attended the summit are creating individual
definitions of medical massage to determine where descriptions of
the practice overlap and where they differ. (All practitioners are
invited to submit a concise definition of medical massage by Feb.
24 to shannon@ntimed.com.)
Other issues discussed during the summit included:
the need to educate the medical profession, insurance field and
general public about the health benefits of massage; the role of
research in advancing the medical field's knowledge of massage's
mechanisms and outcomes; educational standards and scope of practice
for medical-massage therapists; inconsistencies in the regulation
of massage; and whether or not there should be a national exam developed
for medical massage.
The summit was initiated by the National Training
Institute, a massage-education business that teaches courses in
practice management, business promotion, and medical communication
and documentation.
Currently 19 people are members of the Medical
Massage Summit online group. To participate in the next summit,
go to http://groups.yahoo.com
and input "medical massage summit" in the find-a-group
field. After joining, members will receive updates about future
dates and topics.
— Karen Menehan
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