The Cancer Rehab Community Conference 2024 delivered an inspiring weekend filled with learning, collaboration, and innovation.
Attendees gained actionable insights from experts, shared practical applications of the latest research, and celebrated the strides being made in oncology rehab.
Whether you missed it or want to revisit the key moments, this recap covers everything you need to know (plus how to save your seat at next year’s conference!).
Register today for The Cancer Rehab Community Conference 2025!
That’s right: we are already planning next year’s conference! #TCRCC2025 will take place again virtually on Friday, November 7 & Saturday, November 8, 2025.
We will be seeking approval for PT & OT CEUs again next year & will announce that information as soon as we can.
Save your seat at The Cancer Rehab Community Conference 2025 today!
Remember that student ticket holders are not eligible to claim CEUs, but this is still a great opportunity for the students in your life to dip their toes into our amazing world of cancer rehab.
Apply to be a speaker at The Cancer Rehab Community Conference 2025
Are you excited to share your knowledge & passion for the highest quality of oncology patient care? Then we want YOU for The Cancer Rehab Community Conference 2025.
As with the past two conferences, we are looking for a diverse group of speakers from various backgrounds, experiences, and specialties within cancer rehabilitation. You do not need to have extensive speaking or presenting experience to apply. Whether you’re a clinician, researcher, educator, or a patient advocate with a unique perspective, we encourage you to apply. Share your innovative approaches, research breakthroughs, and practical strategies that can transform oncology care and empower rehab professionals to elevate their practice.
The deadline to apply is February 1, 2025, & you can find the application here.
Join our FREE online The Cancer Rehab Community!
Connect, collaborate, and thrive in our dedicated community platform designed exclusively for clinicians. Here, you’ll find a supportive network to share experiences, seek advice, and collaborate on groundbreaking approaches to cancer rehabilitation.
Join The Cancer Rehab Community for free today!
Want to watch the episode instead?
Watch this week’s episode of TheOncoPT Podcast on our YouTube channel!
Transcript
Elise – @TheOncoPT (00:19)
Hey, Onco PT and welcome to this episode of the Onco PT podcast. You may have heard about a little something that happened just a couple of weeks ago called the Cancer Rehab Community Conference 2024. And I am so thrilled to have my beautiful, amazing, brilliant co-founder, Dr. Kelly Sturm here on the podcast today to recap this amazing conference experience we had and maybe to talk about a little something exciting coming up in the future.
So Kelly, welcome back to the Onco PT podcast.
Kelly Sturm (00:50)
Thanks for having me. I feel like I’m still on a high from the conference, so I’m excited to still talk about it.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (00:56)
I feel like I was simultaneously on a high but also needed to hibernate, like both at the same time and those are not compatible, but like, I feel you on that.
my God. So we just had the Cancer Rehab Community Conference back on November 8th and 9th. And we had, simply put, an incredible time. We had amazing speakers from all areas of cancer rehab, which was so amazing. We had a really, like a lot of variety in our speakers and topics. And so we wanted to come on here and just kind of give a little recap from behind the scenes. We were
busy, busy working and just loving everything that was happening. So Kelly, if you had to describe the Cancer Rehab Community Conference 2024 in maybe like one or a couple words or a phrase, what would you say?
Kelly Sturm (01:48)
goodness I’m almost speechless.
It was very valuable and there was a lot of insight. I know this is more than a few words, but I just really loved the variety and it helped remind me how diverse in, you know, within a small niche like cancer rehab, there’s so many different areas that I tend to forget about that we practice within our community, within our cancer rehab community. And I just…
Elise – @TheOncoPT (02:01)
That’s okay, I’m here for it.
Mm-hmm.
Kelly Sturm (02:23)
It was really just like a fresh breath of air to kind of go back and remind myself about these other areas that I tend to not work in or forget about a little bit.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (02:35)
Yeah, yeah. And one of the things I really appreciated is that, and this was something that we’ve really worked to do in both last year’s conference and this year’s conference, these are all clinicians who are practicing day in and day out with patients who have or have had cancer. And so I feel like a lot of the information was not this like theoretical hypothetical. was, like you said, it was very, very valuable to then take
and implement into practice. And I’m not sure if you saw, so we had some people after the conference who were posting in our online community called the Cancer Rehab Community, and they have already implemented, for example, Dr. Katie Schmitz CIP and massage into their practice with their own patients Monday morning after the conference, which I was just like, this is what we do this for, my God.
Kelly Sturm (03:26)
Yeah, I think that’s something that we, and I, Elise, have really felt that we missed early in our careers, like those first few years. And, you know, being solo in a practice and not knowing what to do and needing guidance on patient cases and ideas and techniques and going to conferences and missing that, getting a lot of good research information, but how to apply things as a clinician sometimes gets missed. And so we tried really hard to
Elise – @TheOncoPT (03:33)
Mm-hmm.
Kelly Sturm (03:54)
make the community about that and make it about clinicians and what you can do today with your patients. And I feel like our our speakers absolutely crushed it and our amazing clinicians each and every day and brought a lot of value and a lot of new techniques and tips that yeah, I think so many people could take away from right away.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (04:16)
Now we’ve kind of put the cart in front of the horse here, so I’m going to go back. The whole reason why we started this conference was exactly what Kelly said. You know, there’s a lot of really wonderful conferences out there where you go and you get some of the latest and greatest in research, which is amazing. And that’s a lot of what helps to inform eventually how we practice. But what we have experienced over, you know, I’ve been practicing for about six and a half years now. Kelly, how long have you been practicing?
Kelly Sturm (04:44)
11.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (04:45)
So, you know, over the past several years that we’ve been practicing, we go and we get this information on the research, but that the gap between the research and actually how to implement that in practice is pretty staggering. Especially when you’re a new clinician and you’re literally trying to drink from the fire hose of how do I work with…
a person who has cancer or who has had cancer. And so I think our speakers did a really, I don’t, I don’t think, I know our speakers did a really wonderful job of bridging that gap between, you know, here is some of the research that helps to inform us, but then here’s how you actually make it happen in your own practice. And I really loved one thing that I was really impressed by this year. There were so many case studies and like case patients that
our speakers went over. So they would talk about topics, but then they would say, here’s how I actually implemented that in my own practice. That was probably one of my favorite parts of the conference.
Kelly Sturm (05:43)
Yeah, and I think as someone who’s been practicing for 11 years, you’re still at a point that cancer rehab is still not where we want it to be in this teaching the school systems as far as training goes. And so these are all things that we’ve all had to learn as we go. Clinicians who have been doing cancer rehab for a while. It’s very rare we learned this in school. And so we’re still learning from each other. We’re still learning new techniques from each other. We’re still learning the entire niche in the area, the profession from each other.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (05:59)
Mm-hmm.
Kelly Sturm (06:13)
I just love that I took so much value out of not only the speakers, but also the chat and other clinicians who were there. Yeah, hey, I’ve been using this too. This worked well for me. So it wasn’t only the speakers who were giving a lot of value, it was also those who were attending.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (06:33)
That was one of, I know I’ve said this about multiple things. That was one of my favorites, but also one of the more surprising things that we discovered at last year’s conference was the chat function. And like, yeah, it’s there, you know, it’s like an electronic platform, but the amount of conversations that were happening in the chat on.
here’s how this is working for me or hey, I’ve tried this before. Has anybody found success with this or this? And this was something we saw a lot this year. my gosh, I’m also in blah, blah state or, you know, city, what have you. Where are you at? So we can connect and, know, like send patients back and forth. We can maybe meet up in person, which I am such a big fan of.
So, you know, not only are you going to the conference and getting this really, really focused expertise and then applicability to your own practice, but you’re also encountering other clinicians with, you know, a small of a niche, as like Kelly said, a small of a niche as cancer rehab is, it can feel very lonely at times. And I think this is helping maybe the clinician who’s newer to cancer rehab not feel so alone and know that, wow, there are a lot of really cool people who are actually kind of close to me who can help me out with all of this.
Kelly Sturm (07:46)
I think you called it in the conference, you called it cancer rehab besties.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (07:52)
I did.
Kelly Sturm (07:56)
Yeah.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (07:57)
I believe it. mean, I met you. I’ve met Alex. I’ve met, you know, so many others through this that really like, y’all have become my cancer rehab besties. And I hope others find that too, because, you know, there’s nothing like being able to come and connect with somebody when you’ve had like a really hard patient case or a really hard day and you just need a little, you know, kick in the kick in the pants to keep going sometimes.
Kelly Sturm (07:59)
Yeah, yes, we do.
Yeah.
Yeah, I agree with that. I think it’s been really helpful to network. I’ve never met any of you, any of the people I’ve talked to in the community in person yet. I have not. But I feel like I could reach out at any time and connect and get help when I needed. And I don’t feel alone in the clinic anymore at all. I don’t feel alone within the cancer rehab area, the profession at all, because of the community.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (08:31)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
I love that. that makes me so happy. And yeah, spoiler, Kelly and I have actually never met in person yet. We are meeting for the first time at CSM this year, which I am really excited for, but it’s kind of wild. Like, again, I think this is the really cool magical world of cancer rehab besties. Like I can call Kelly up at any time. And the same goes for so many in our community, which I just love.
Kelly Sturm (08:50)
you
We’re red.
You
Elise – @TheOncoPT (09:12)
One of the things that I really appreciated in the conference too, and this was, think Yoshi, one of our speakers gave us a little too much credit because one of the things that I was so blown away by was, you know, we invited a variety of speakers covering a lot of different topics, but the speakers did a masterful job of not only did they present their information,
but they also tied back concepts and topics they were talking about to other presentations. So as much as we had a lot of different topics, a lot of intersection between those topics and the speakers. Yoshi was like, I know they planned it this way. Yoshi, we really did not. Y’all made it happen. And so just wanted to give a major shout out to our speakers. Y’all made that happen. Like, my God.
Kelly Sturm (10:07)
Yeah, no, that was pretty, it was pretty remarkable. But it goes to show that we are blended as a cancer rehab community, even though we’re in different issues, like an outpatient versus acute and you have different specialties within that. We do cross over and that’s why it’s so helpful to have the community because, you know, I don’t work in acute care. I haven’t worked in acute care my entire career. But there’s a lot of things that, you know, the clinicians and the speakers who are talking about the acute care inpatient setting that I could pull into outpatient.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (10:14)
Mm-hmm.
Kelly Sturm (10:35)
or better understand what they do so when the patient comes to me and outpatient, I know where they’ve been and what they’ve been doing. And so there’s just so much intersection that I think is really valuable to keep within the community that we’re having these ongoing conversations together.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (10:36)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. What is one thing? So thinking back to when you first started in cancer rehab, brand new PT, Kelly, what do you think or what would you have wanted to hear at this conference? Like what would have comforted or motivated or, you know, inspired you as a new on-code PT by attending this conference?
Kelly Sturm (11:17)
think we talked about a little bit, first and foremost, I was solo. I think you were too, Elise, when you started your career, but I was at a clinic who was in a large hospital system, but at that clinic, I was the only one treating this population, and I was learning. And yes, I could probably email someone and get some information, but I still felt very alone day to day in patient cases, not being able to bounce ideas off of someone, not learning new things. And so I think the biggest thing of just having that net
Elise – @TheOncoPT (11:39)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kelly Sturm (11:47)
creating that network and finding a new network who I could reach out to at any time, carry over after the conference. First and foremost, I think that would be what I would take away as a new grad or a new clinician in cancer rehab. I think on top of that, there were so many like just wonderful hands-on techniques shared or interventions to do shared from a variety of things from Katie’s CIPM talk and Yoshi’s
Elise – @TheOncoPT (11:51)
Definitely.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kelly Sturm (12:16)
breast cancer talk and Andrew’s exercise prescription talk and Adam’s trauma informed care, so many pieces that I would have taken and put into my toolbox as a clinician that I would have never learned anywhere else at that point. And I didn’t learn any of those right away. So I would have really just soaked in so much value of how to be a better clinician right away.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (12:16)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Same on the lonely aspect of this. For listeners who have been with me on this journey for some time, know that for the first two years of my career, actually, was extremely blessed in that I got what I thought was my dream job right after graduating, which was amazing. I was working with oncology patients all day, every day. And then the reality kind of set in and I realized, this is not.
this is not the right place for me. I was the only clinician on site, like I was the only rehab clinician on site. So the only PT, there were no OTs, no speech, no anybody else. And same thing, like yes, maybe there were people who I could have reached out to via email, but not any semblance of like help or mentorship. That was so, so necessary. And so I really floundered, I think for…
the first several years of my practice. And it wasn’t until I really started connecting with other clinicians and making those relationships happen that I kind of, not only I could go and learn the hard skills, the hard skills being like range of motion and what interventions to do to address whatever, but also what it means to be a better clinician and some of those soft skills. That showed up in last year’s conference with Lauren’s presentation on soft skills and then also continued both with Adam’s conversation on the trauma-informed care. But I also really loved that in this year’s conference, Hannah, who is an occupational therapist and who is also a breast cancer survivor herself, and I’m not sharing anything that she did not share in her presentation, okay? So like, this is all very…
like respectful to what her experience has been. She shared a lot of what really made the difference for her and once she finished with cancer treatment, it’s like there was this whole other weight that got put on her and the fears of, because she shared in her talk, when she was going through cancer treatment, she just had her head down and was like, go, go, go, like, we’re gonna get through this. And then when she was determined to be cancer free,
all of the fears about like, is this going to come back? What can I do to take care of myself? And then the impairments that she was dealing with, one of the things she talked about was frozen shoulder. That’s when that happened. And so she was kind of in this limbo of like, well, I’m not seeing my oncologist, so what do I do about this? And so that’s when she got connected with rehab. And that for her is what she talked about in her presentation on connecting a lot of dots and making those
You know, not just the learning about here’s what’s happening with my body physically, but also how can I take care of myself and what are the soft skills that are so necessary to showing up as a better therapist for your patients who are in that kind of the head space. And I really appreciated that as much as we’re talking about, again, the quote hard skills, like the, again, I go back to range of motion, prescribing exercise, et cetera, things you learn in school, but also those soft.
skills, those interpersonal skills that make us a great clinician. Or as I think Adam says, know, meeting, like showing up for the human in front of you as a human, like the humanity in all of it. And I was really, really excited to see that once again.
Kelly Sturm (16:22)
Yeah, I think that was wonderful. Like I said, I think there was so much to take away from no matter where you’re at and what, how long you’ve been practicing and how strong your skills are as a clinician. There was still just so much value to take away at all levels.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (16:39)
Mm-hmm. 100%. it’s, we did make the comment to ourselves. This conference went so well. I don’t know how we’re going to top it genuinely. Well, we are because we’ve got our thinking caps on and spoiler alert, we’re already planning for next year’s conference, but it went so, so well. And I think it just really boils down to the speakers know their stuff.
They know their craft, you know, they’re leading and emerging experts in our field for a reason. And for them to come on and just, I think that’s what I’ve really appreciated about the cancer rehab community is there’s not this holding information so close to our chest. Like it’s a secret because one of the things that Kelly and I have always stood by in our career is, know, when your patients get better, all of our patients get better.
And the reason that we say this, that we know what we believe behind this is that we know that when we’re able to make a difference and positively impact the patients in our own community, that elevates the standard of cancer rehab and oncology of care for everybody, not just in our neighborhood, in our family, but in our communities and larger within our cities, within our states, within our nation, within the whole world, et cetera. That’s something that we believe so fervently. And I really love that each of the speakers came to the table.
for this year’s conference with that same mentality of, laid it all out, this is how it works, this is what has worked for me, this is how maybe you can implement it into your own practice. I really loved, so Abby was another one of our speakers and she really talked through what are some things that are working right now within program development, within cancer rehab, how can you bring this information and build a program, a sustainable?
cancer rehab program in your community for your community and your patients and not just, send your patients to nearest hospital in big city, whatever, and hope that they get the care that they need. And I was really, really impressed. Just, I feel like that mission resonated so clearly throughout our entire conference,
Kelly Sturm (18:57)
Yeah, and I like that we had, you know, Abby spoke on program development and then Nicole Stout also in a way spoke about program development put to a much larger scale, kind of what that really high gold standard is. But you can see between those, and even if you’re starting out on your own, where you may fit, where your practice may fit, your hospices may fit within that just range of opportunity, it might not be that you have
Elise – @TheOncoPT (19:06)
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Kelly Sturm (19:27)
you know, the systems that Nicole Stout and her program had running up, but Abby gave a lot of really good ideas on how to start with where you’re at, who you have access to, and how can you elevate your practice to improve getting those referrals, making sure patients are getting to cancer rehab, and just meeting your patients where they’re at within your own community.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (19:50)
Mm-hmm. For the person who’s listening right now, Kelly, and is like, I missed this year’s conference. I’m really bummed about it. Is there going to be a next year’s conference?
Kelly Sturm (20:07)
So of course there’s gonna be a next year conference. We would have loved to have you this year. It was an absolutely fantastic conference. Elise and I worked really hard. We felt it was gonna be a good conference, but the speakers and the chat and everyone, it blew us away at how wonderful it was. And honestly, how I feel like the community really grew within it, even post. We can talk about that later. So we’re definitely doing 2025.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (20:28)
Yeah.
Kelly Sturm (20:34)
without a doubt, we want to keep it growing. We want to make sure the community is supported, but we really hope to continue to support clinicians and what you do day to day in your practice. And I think maybe Elise alluded to this, but our speakers, pretty much all of them are clinicians by background, and they all did an amazing job with their presentations, but there were a few who have never spoken.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (20:54)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kelly Sturm (21:02)
at a conference ever before. And it was wonderful. They did amazing. But also just shows that this is really about the clinician and the community that we’re trying to help each other out. We all have something valuable to share. Each one of us has a technique that someone else probably doesn’t know. And so we hope that not only for next year’s conference, yep, get excited because it was amazing. do it again, but also just…
Elise – @TheOncoPT (21:02)
Yeah.
They killed it. my God.
Kelly Sturm (21:29)
Get excited to be a part of the community and start getting to the conversations that are happening day to day.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (21:31)
Mm-hmm. Right, right. You know, our community is composed of a variety of individuals. Actually, it’s global now because we do have, I think, six different countries represented in the community, which is so exciting, so bonkers to me. But, you know, it ranges from the clinician who is working by themselves, maybe, you geographically, that they are…
isolated but also maybe they’re the only clinician in their facility that treats people who have cancer. All the way to clinicians who are working in these big cancer rehab specific institutions and are looking for additional resources. So this isn’t just for either end of the spectrum here. This is created if you are treating people who have cancer or
If you’re a student who wants to treat people with cancer someday, this is the community for you. You can find and join the cancer rehab community for free by going to the oncopT.com slash community. And I’m going to go ahead and drop the dates, Kelly, because we’ve drummed it off excitement as is right now. The cancer rehab community conference 2025 is happening on November 7th and 8th, 2025. We have
actually already started with our early bird ticket sales, which are deeply discounted. You can register for those at the oncopT.com slash conference. And I’m going to give one little plug here. Kelly’s already talked about it, but I want to make sure if you are passionate and you are excited about sharing what you know about cancer rehab, we would like you to apply to be a speaker at next year’s conference.
So right now it is middle of November, 2024. know, but it’s going to be here before we know it. have to start planning. So you can also find the application to be a speaker at the cancer rehab community conference, 2025 again at the oncopt.com slash conference. And you’ll be able to find the speaker application area as well. So we welcome your submissions again, as Kelly mentioned, these are not all world-class speakers who have
decades of conference speaking experience, we had some first time speakers at this conference and it was outstanding because your perspective is valuable, just like with our other speakers. Again, we had Nicole Stout and Susan Maltzer, that Maltzer 2017 article that I quote all the time on this podcast, a first review of safety considerations and cancer rehab, that Maltzer all the way.
to some clinicians who this was their very first time speaking in front of an audience and it was outstanding. So we want you, we want you at the conference. We also want you to apply to be a speaker. The application is due by February 1st, 2025. Again, you can find all of that at our conference website. Links to go find that is the oncopT.com slash conference. Kelly, anything to add on next year’s conference that we are so excited and already planning for?
Kelly Sturm (24:44)
No, I think you tapped it off. And like I said, it just don’t feel like you need to have past experience speaking if you have an area that you’re really passionate about. And you have have a goal for 2025 to speak for the first time in a conference, or you have a topic that you’ve been really diving into and you feel like you, you know, want to share what you’re learning, like, please apply, we want to learn we want to learn what you know.
And Elise shared the website too. You can also go straight to the CancerRehabCommunity.com and all of that is on the website as well.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (25:15)
Mm-hmm.
Amazing. One last thing, Kelly, if there’s someone out there who is listening to this and says, I just don’t know if this is the right place for me. You know, I’m treating oncology patients. I’m kind of lost. I’m kind of stuck. I just don’t know where to turn. What would you tell them?
Kelly Sturm (25:37)
First and foremost, come just join our community. Come just, even if you’re a fly on the wall and wanna just read and learn, people are asking case studies and a lot of people are giving really good responses. So you’re gonna learn a lot. Start getting to the conversations, asking questions, give some answers, ideas, whatever you have. Just start there because when you can start getting plugged in, start networking a little bit, just being a part of the conversation, I feel like you’re going to get a lot more out of it than you realize.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (25:47)
Yeah.
Kelly Sturm (26:07)
So that’s a great place to start. And then get ready for the conference. You’re going to dive deeper. We have 12 months to go. So there’s a ways out. But that’ll give you enough time to start getting plugged in through the community and then get ready to dive in real deep in that conference next year.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (26:15)
Yeah
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. We also are submitting for CEUs again for the 2025 conference. We are super thrilled to, we’ve shared this previously, but we actually not only had PTCUs, but also OTCEUs for the 2024 conference, which was amazing. It was a big, heavy lift, a labor of love for many months, but we have made it happen and we’re going to do it again.
for the 2025 conference. will announce those as those details are finalized. Of course, that will be posted on the website and released in our community as well, but just know that is coming. And then if you’re a student also, we also have student tickets, deeply discounted. They’re not eligible for CEUs, but if you have a student in your life who is interested in cancer rehab, is interested in working with the oncology patient population, this is a great way to get them connected with a lot of other really passionate and excited
practitioners in our amazing field. So Kelly, thank you so much for joining me today. Where can people find you and learn more from you?
Kelly Sturm (27:33)
Well, I hope you come join us with the community because at least they are very active in there. if you want to find me personally, I’m at Cancer Rehab PT on Instagram and YouTube and CancerRehabPT.com for my website. So feel free to reach out.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (27:50)
Amazing. Kelly, I’m so, so grateful that first of all, I found you and we’ve become cancer rehab besties, but also that we’ve partnered to make this amazing community like it, you know, and I have to brag a little bit on us. Nicole Stout talked about how we are revolutionizing cancer rehab through this conference and through this community. And I am so, so excited to continue this work that we’ve started. cannot wait to see you.
Kelly Sturm (27:56)
three of besties.
Elise – @TheOncoPT (28:17)
at the Cancer Rehab Community Conference 2025. Again, you can find all of the details about the conference at the oncopT.com slash conference, or you can go straight to our community website, which is the oncoPT, no, that’s me, thecancerrehabcommunity.com. And I will link all of these in the show notes, of course. So until next time, this is Alyse with the OncopT. And remember, you are exactly the physical therapist that your patients with cancer need.
Kelly Sturm (28:31)
You
Elise – @TheOncoPT (28:46)
So let’s get to work.