In this episode, Elise takes a look back at The Cancer Rehab Community Conference 2024, sharing key takeaways and highlights from the event.
Dive into the incredible sessions with the actual conference speakers, covering topics like:
- Using manual therapy to manage CIPN
- Safety in cancer rehab (from the safety queen herself, Dr. Susan Maltser!)
- Strategies to ensure cancer rehab has a seat at the table
- Innovative approaches to acute care oncology
- And so much more!
Even if you didn’t make it to this year’s conference, you definitely don’t want to miss this amazing recap (plus how to save on your ticket for next year’s conference)!
Listen now!
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 The Cancer Rehab Community for free
Connect, collaborate, and thrive in our dedicated community platform designed exclusively for clinicians. In The Cancer Rehab Community, we’re amassing a global network of supportive cancer rehab pros who all want the same thing: the best for our patients. And we know the way to seeing this truly happen in our world is by collaborating & sharing what we know so that you can help your own patients in your own community.
Join The Cancer Rehab Community for free today!
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Watch this week’s episode of TheOncoPT Podcast on our YouTube channel!
Transcript
Elise – @TheOncoPT (00:19)
Hey, Onco PT and welcome back to this episode of the Onco PT podcast. Now, if you listened to last week’s episode, you already know how amazing the Cancer Rehab Community Conference 2024 was. Like I still, it’s now three weeks after the conference and I still cannot get over the high. And to keep the excitement going, because I’m not ready to let go of such an amazing experience, I wanna keep talking about it. But I’m not gonna make you sit through another episode of
me talking about how amazing the conference is, I’m going to give you a little sneak peek on what actually happened in the conference by letting the speakers themselves talk to you and get a little snippet of what they actually talked about at the conference. Whether you were there or not, you still get to have a little bit of the conference magic. And I hope this also inspires you to sign up for next year’s conference, but we’ll cover those details at the end of the episode. So let’s go ahead and dive right into our first clip.
Now this first clip was actually our first speaker, Dr. Katie Schmitt whose presentation was all about CSM, specifically this manual therapy protocol that she is pioneering to help her patients.
with CIPN both in the hands, but especially in the feet, which is what she really focused on in our conversation at our past conference. And I really love in this clip, she’s talking about how she discusses and describes CIPN with her patients, because let’s face it, we’ve heard neuropathy before. Many patients may have experienced it previously, they’re experiencing it now, they’ve heard of somebody who has neuropathy.
but who really understands what neuropathy is? And if you’re watching this, you know that my hand is raised too. Because while I get that chemotherapy and other agents actually affect the nerves, you know, the peripheral nerves in this sense, I didn’t really understand for a long, long time how they were affected, what this actually did to those nerve endings until I actually sat with Katie at a previous podcast recording that we did back in
And after hearing Katie’s presentation and these analogies on how she talks about CIPN with her patients, I will definitely be stealing these and using them with my own patients in my own practice who also have CIPN. Take a
As an early career on OncoPT I learned quickly that certain cancer treatments are cardio toxic, are toxic to our lungs, but I didn’t really know what to do beyond that. It was more of a appreciate that this is happening and then just kind of document that somewhere and then move on with the rest of your stuff. Now, fast forward to today, I have a little better understanding, but what has really changed the game for me is this presentation, this next clip.
by Dr. Julie Skrzat, who is a cardiopulmonary whiz in physical therapy. And what I love about this clip in particular, during her presentation, she talked about how do certain cancer treatments cause cardiopulmonary issues? How do these manifest for our patients? But she didn’t just stop there. She also talked about what do we actually know? What is in the evidence?
that we can harness to leverage in order to help our patients who have very significant cardiopulmonary issues, including heart
Now in this clip, Julie acknowledges that these guidelines she goes over are for the population with heart failure, not specific to oncology. But I believe that there is a lot of crossover between what Julie goes over in these guidelines and what we can then take and apply to our own patients. Take a
By now, you probably have a very good understanding of when a person comes to you with a particular cancer diagnosis, with a particular set of impairments, that there are certain objective measures or outcome measures that are tested to be really valid and reliable in this patient population, and you should incorporate those into your evaluation. Awesome, we’re all for that here at the Onco PT. But the reality of
actually making that happen in day-to-day practice can be really challenging. And it’s easy to get kind of down on yourself and say, you know, I just, I understand it. I get this is important. I don’t know how to actually make this happen with my own patients in the own set of circumstances that I work under. And friend, I totally get you because that is exactly where I’m at.
And that’s why I loved in Dr. Andrew Chongaway’s presentation. He was real with us. He got on our level as someone who works day in and day out with oncology patients and was basically like, hey, we know this is really important. Here’s how I actually double dip on things to make all of this work with my patients. Or here’s how I prioritize some of the test and measures and the objective.
you know, outcome measures that I will use with my patients to gather all of this information. And again, while you never need permission from any of us here at the OncoPT to go and do stuff in your practice, I do have to admit hearing Andrew kind of give permission in a sense on, hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. Here’s how to make this work in your practice. It was such a freeing feeling. And I know you’re gonna feel the same way once you listen to this
OMG y’all.
You’ve heard me talk about this before. I still can’t believe that we got Dr. Susan Maltser to keynote day one of the Cancer Rehab Community Conference. And boy, did she deliver. Now her presentation was all about safety considerations in cancer rehab, which you know is my jam. Just absolutely hands down to date, my favorite article in all of cancer rehab.
And one of the most important ones I would say is a focused review of safety considerations in cancer rehab by Maltser et al. 2017. A classic, y’all. And what I really loved about this presentation by Dr. Maltser is it not only went over what are some of those guidelines that came out that we have known, we have gotten to know and love over the years from that initial landmark article, but also one of the topics that she covered.
multiple times in this presentation was all about common sense precautions. Mind blowing phrase. Simple enough, right? These are not crazy words that we’re learning for the first time, but just that string of words together made so many things click for me. And from what we saw in the chat, a lot of the other attendees at this conference on, okay,
We know that there are of course certain safety principles that we need to adhere to when we’re working with this very dynamic patient population. But a lot of what we know is informed and guided by fear rather than actual evidence. And I love in this clip that Dr. Maltser not only acknowledges that background behind many of the, especially like the modality contraindications that we know,
but also how to actually take this with a grain of salt or maybe a whole bucket of salt, depending on what we’re talking about, and kind of consider the whole picture of the patient and what that patient really needs and what kind of risk benefit ratio we’re really working with when you’re choosing to or to not implement different treatment
techniques with your patients. And again, I think I love to hate on ultrasound because I thought it was so silly to learn about in PT school. And now I have not used it once in my entire clinical practice since I have been a professional PT because I’ve never had one wherever I’ve worked. But I love that Dr. Maltser again takes these what she calls common sense precautions.
and really says, okay, here’s how we can actually do this in your clinic. Here’s how this should ultimately play out with your patients, why we have these kind of old outdated guidelines and how we should really be practicing with our patients ultimately for their highest benefit. Y’all obsessed, simply
One of the biggest complaints that I frequently hear about in OncoPT within cancer rehab is I’m doing really good work. My patients love me because of course your patients love you. You’re doing great work with them. You’re helping them achieve their goals, work towards whatever they’re trying to work towards after they’ve been diagnosed with cancer. But I’m like the best kept secret in my town. Nobody knows about me or nobody’s referring to me. How in the world am I supposed to get more patients?
Well, Dr. Abby Hegerfeld is literally helping cancer rehab professionals across the country answer this question and then also fix this problem in their own communities. And so I was so thrilled that she presented at the Cancer Rehab Community Conference specifically on this. And buckle up, friend, because what she talks about, I find that a lot of PTs are kind of like, ooh, they shirk back or they kind of cringe about it. And friend, there is no reason to.
In fact, you absolutely should be doing what Abby talks about. And if you’re not, you are literally taking yourself out of the conversations, out of the rooms, out of the spaces where these decisions are being made. Friend, you need to be at the door, right? At the room, in the clinic, in the wherever helping to make this
And the only way you’re gonna do this is by implementing what Dr. Abby Hegerfeld talks about in this
Now, unless you see a lot of patients experiencing head and neck lymphedema, or this is of a special interest to you, you probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about or working with this very special patient population. And for many of us, when we go and do our CLT training, so certified lymphedema therapist training, we learn how to manage upper extremity and lower extremity lymphedema, but don’t always get around to the head and neck. All this to say,
Unless you really take the time and the effort to learn this by yourself, you probably don’t learn a whole lot about this. Learn what to do for patients who have head and neck lymphedema. So in our speaker, Manisha Agarwal’s presentation, she talked all about, you know, what is head and neck lymphedema? How does it affect a person? What do we do about it? She interwove at like every step of the way different patient cases that she was working with either currently or previously.
with lots of really rad pictures too, which I totally loved. And in one particular patient example that she gave, she talked about how Manisha came in to this patient session and was like, okay, here’s the plan, here’s what we’re gonna do, I know exactly how to fix this, like this is the plan, we got this, we just gotta implement the plan And the patient pushed back and said, that is not going to work with me and my life.
you need to come up with a different plan. And y’all, if sometimes we don’t need a good swift kick in the pants like this to kind of get us back to reality and realize that this is not just the Elise show or, you know, insert your name here. This is the patient and Elise show again, patient and you show. And we really need to be more cognizant of while we may have the best intentioned, well laid plan.
that may not actually work for our patients. And so in this clip from Manisha’s presentation, she really goes into, know, I would love to implement XYZ with my patient, you know, have them do all these things, but I know that if we’re going to work together as a team and have the best outcomes in the longterm, where there’s buy-in from the both of us, I have to manage those expectations. I have to kind of, you know, check my ego and really make sure that I’m approaching this
alongside the patient to make this work. And I really, really appreciate that
Now our last speaker of day one is Hannah Stetler who is an occupational therapist and is actually a breast cancer survivor herself. And perhaps most special of all to me was actually one of my patients several years ago, shortly after she had finished cancer treatment. She talks a little bit about how we got connected, but I so love Hannah’s perspective. And you know, as much as
We know we’re doing really good work. I know that you’re listening to this because you always want to be doing better for your patients. You’re constantly seeking ways of how can I be a better therapist? Hannah’s perspective as a patient, as a cancer survivor, and now as a professional herself, as an occupational therapist, the perspectives that she has and the commentary from her own experience on all of this
was the perfect way to end day one of the Cancer Rehab Community Conference. I don’t have a whole lot more to say about the clip except for I’m going to stop talking and let Hannah do the talking because you need to listen to her words, y’all. Pure gold.
As powerfully as Hannah closed day one of the Cancer Rehab Community Conference 2024, Dr. Lori Boright opened day two with just as much power and gusto. So her session was all about considerations for rehab when it comes to the palliative care domain. So working with patients, again, not just in a hospice setting where it’s end of life care, but also…
in stages where a person may have more advanced cancer, but also really operating within the full scope of what it means to be in palliative care, from the point of diagnosis all the way through treatment to whatever that endpoint is for that patient. And my God, y’all, so, so good. Nuggets of wisdom throughout this entire presentation, but this one…
clip in particular really stood out as not only like, yes, man, we do good work, but also really built on and this, well, man, I loved it so much. A lot of the speakers did a really good job of like building off of others topics. That happened the whole two days. But this in particular, this clip from Lori, I think is going to give you a lot of callbacks.
to Dr. Abby Hegerfeld’s presentation on day one, which was all about you’ve got to sell yourself. If we’re really gonna advance collaboration in OncoPT and cancer rehab, we have to do this. And Lori’s presentation, particularly this one quote that she’s going to go over, I think just took that and kind of blew my mind up to a new level of like the urgency behind this and how imperative it is that we gotta do this now.
In OncoPT, we talk a lot about establishing, forming a therapeutic alliance with your patient. I feel like I first heard about this kind of like topic or phrase in PT school, and it continues to this day, but I think I’m kind of changing a little bit on how I approach this and how I frame this in my mind, especially after this session at the Cancer Rehab Community Conference.
So day two, right after Lori, had Dr. Adam Matichak who presented on trauma-informed care. And not just a here’s what it is, but also how can we bring this and integrate this into our care intentionally with our patients and really acknowledging the trauma that many of our patients, if not maybe all of our patients have experienced at one point or another.
Now, Adam goes on to talk about, you know, he’s a tall dude. Now I’ve actually never met him in person. I cannot wait to do so at CSM coming up in February because there’s going to be a significant height difference between us. But Adam talks about how he, as a tall male therapist, is really working to take the steps within his own practice to make a more healing, trauma-informed environment for his patients. Now, while you may be listening like me and saying,
You know, well, Adam, that’s good, but I’m a five one, I’m looking at me, myself in the screen right now, I’m a five one, not very tall female therapist. Like, you know, I’m probably already doing a good job of this. Friend, I’m gonna push back because what Adam talks about and what he continued to go into in his presentation really highlighted a lot of areas for me where I know that I need to be doing more intentional work.
every single day. So not just like big one-time changes every day. How can we show up and be better therapists showing up for the human in our patients as the human us? Now Adam says it much better, so I’m going to turn it over to him, okay?
Our next speaker, Dr. Tori Crook, has a really unique experience and perspective when it comes to OncoPT She originally started her career in outpatient oncology PT and has since transitioned to inpatient acute care oncology PT. watching this all happen, first of all, has been very cool as her very local colleague here in Fort Worth, Texas. But what I really appreciate is that Tori didn’t just…
dive into acute care oncology and say, all right, let’s make this work. She takes principles and perspectives and experiences from her outpatient days. But what she’s also doing that’s really working to transform acute care oncology PT at her institution is also understanding the role that acute care plays kind of within the context of a lot of different
In her presentation, she also calls back to Dr. Rebekah Griffith, who we’ve had on the podcast multiple times, who you may know as the EDDPT, the Emergency Department Physical Therapist, on how…
The emergency room, as Rebekah puts it, is the new primary care for many Americans. And Tori poses the question in her presentation, if the emergency department is the new primary care, what does that make acute care? And what does that mean for oncology physical therapy within acute care and kind of really
taking what’s been very traditional and well established in acute care oncology PT and kind of turning it on its head. And I have to say, I am here for the rides, my friend, and I know you’re gonna love it
I could have listened to this next speaker present for the entire conference and would have been as happy as a clam. And I’m not even joking y’all. Dr. Yoshi Schonborn presented on demystifying basically the problems in the chest, the axilla and the arm shoulder area that many of our patients with breast cancer experience. So what are some of the problems?
that patients experience as a result or post breast cancer and breast cancer treatment. And then of course, as we like to do at the cancer rehab community, what the heck do we do about
In this clip, Yoshi goes into a little bit of differential diagnosis, because I’m sure you’ve experienced, sometimes our patients don’t come in with a nice, clean, defined, distinct list of issues. Sometimes they have a bunch of issues that are all related to each other, and we have to tease out what the heck is going on, what the heck to do with it. And Yoshi really goes into, here’s…
a way you can start doing that. Here’s some things to consider when you’re working with patients. And so the specific examples talked about would be axillary web syndrome, and then also some like neuro issues as well, which I’m gonna be completely honest, before this presentation that Yoshi gave, I didn’t even think about those two things being an issue at the same time in this capacity. And I’m really, really glad that they did go into this. And this is definitely, if you…
purchased a ticket to the 2024 conference, you have access to the recordings until next year. I would encourage you, go back and listen to this session again and again, because I’ve now listened to the session three times. And I’m gonna do it again, at least. Because every time that I listen, I get more and more out of that session. And then it sinks deeper into how can I actually implement this with my own patients and my own
my God, last session y’all, we made it. You heard me talk about previously how excited we were that Dr. Susan Maltser was our keynote speaker for day one. And boy, boy, our day two keynote speaker stepped up and delivered also. And that would be the Dr. Nicole Stout. I know, I know. I still can’t believe it. Now, Dr. Nicole Stout talked about
frankly, a lot of things in her keynote presentation. But in this particular clip, we’re highlighting some of the research that she and her team at WVU, so West Virginia University within the oncology department, are really working on and looking at. And now I will be completely honest, when she first started talking about this research, I had some preconceptions about West Virginia. I was like, it’s very rural.
That makes sense. I imagine there’s not a lot of available cancer rehab resources for these patients. And that’s correct. That would be an accurate statement. West Virginia is very rural. But that actually did not answer completely why so many patients don’t have access to the support and the services that they need from a cancer rehab perspective.
So just to give you a little context on kind of what we’re talking about here, Dr. Stout does go into what those factors were and ultimately what this means for us. But I found it really interesting because again, even though you probably know West Virginia, very rural, kind of makes sense from a surface level why patients may not have the best access. But then it also got me thinking a lot about what happens here in, so I’m in Texas. And there’s parts of Texas that are quite rural.
There’s also parts of Texas that are quite urban, quite metropolitan. And even with Texas is a bigger state, we have a lot more people. I saw a lot of parallels between what Nicole was talking about happening in West Virginia and also what I see here in Texas. And I bet that a lot of what is discussed in this next clip is probably also happening in your state, in your area.
with your patients And I would love to know your thoughts on that. be sure, if you would, listen to this next clip and then message me on Instagram to let me know your thoughts because I would really love to know
With that, it is finally time that we wrap up this year’s Cancer Rehab Community Conference 2024. It was an amazing experience. I am already looking forward to next year’s conference, although I’m so bummed that this year’s conference is done. I don’t know how we’re possibly going to top it. We are, let’s be clear. I know we are.
because I know that the speakers who are going to present a next year’s conference are going to meet and exceed expectations just like this year’s speakers did. But man, there’s something to be said for working on something for an entire year and then it happens and it’s even better than you planned for and I’m just so, grateful. So first of all, thank you so much to all of our speakers that made this such an amazing conference. You are the champions, my friend. Like you made this happen. Thank you so much.
to all of the attendees who put your faith in us for delivering yet another amazing year of the Cancer Rehab Community Conference. Cannot wait to see you at next year’s conference. You can find the link. We are already selling tickets for next year. I know, early bird pricing is now available. You can find those at TheOncoPT.com/conference I cannot wait to see you there. And I do have to pause.
and thank my amazing co-founder of the cancer rehab community, Dr. Kelly Sturm. You know her as Cancer Rehab PT. Amazing. I absolutely would not have been able to pull off this conference again this year without her working furiously behind the scenes all the way up until the conference, through the conference, and after the conference to make this happen. So thank you so much, Kelly. I so appreciate you. And I appreciate you listener for taking.
This time to spend it with me and all of the amazing speakers from the Cancer Rehab Community Conference 2024. Again, save your seat today for a discount. That’s right. Early bird pricing is discounted. You can find your ticket at TheOncoPT.com/conference. And I cannot wait to see you there at the Cancer Rehab Community Conference 2025. But until then, this is Elise with the Onco PT. And remember, you.
are exactly the physical therapist that your patients with cancer need. So let’s get to work.