CHS Faculty, Alumni Join Librarians on Team to Rewrite PT Patient Guidelines
By Ryan Clark
CHS Communications Director
CHS faculty and alumni joined UK librarians on a team this summer that helped rewrite Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) for treatment of patients in acute care hospitalization for physical therapists — and an alumna involved just talked about the process on a recent episode of a medical podcast.
Kirby Mayer, DPT, PhD and associate professor for Physical Therapy; along with Rehabilitation and Health Sciences PhD program (RHB) alumna Dr. Lindsey Fresenko, PT, DPT, PhD (currently a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Exercise & Rehabilitative Sciences in the College of Health and Human Services at the University of Toledo); RHB and PT alumna Audrey Johnson, PT, PhD (currently a Clinical Research Coordinator at UK); Lauren Robinson, UK’s associate director of Research Services; and health sciences librarian Cayla Robinson participated in the rewrite, which took five years.
“The Clinical Practice Guideline was the result of a large team of individuals, who dedicated five years to improving acute care physical therapy practice,” Mayer said. “Our Clinical Practice Guidelines specifically guide or help clinicians make informed decisions about when, what and how to use outcome measures with patients in the hospital who are participating in rehabilitation interventions. The CPG strengthens our practice by supporting critical thinking and reducing unnecessary variations to ultimately improve our patients' outcomes.”
He said the finality of the project brought many emotions.
“Gratitude, sense of accomplishment, pride in our team and work, as well as a little bit of relief, too, be finished,” he said. “The publication is the final achievement, but what is not seen is the immense amount of work and the recurring Tuesday meetings that the core team devoted to finalizing the CPG. I am extremely grateful for our core team, the medical librarians, our oversight committee, and the hundreds of people who reviewed provided feedback, appraised articles, and supported our work.”
Mayer wanted to specifically recognize the librarians who assisted.
“I think the collaboration with librarians is cool — they really don't get credit,” he said.
Cayla Robinson said a lot of people don’t know exactly how much help librarians can provide.
“In the past, libraries were seen as places that solely housed reading materials, but now we are truly hubs for research and innovation,” she said. “As librarians we are experts in information retrieval and evidence synthesis methodologies. Projects like Clinical Practice Guidelines require the retrieval of all scholarly articles on their topic and this is where librarians shine!”
She said this project was an honor.
“This kind of work is always impactful, but it is especially rewarding to work with the brilliant researchers in the CHS such as Dr. Kirby Mayer,” she said. “It is so important to have wonderful collaborators outside of the libraries, and I am truly honored to have the opportunity to work with such great researchers, instructors, and clinicians in the College of Health Sciences.”
In November, Fresenko and Caitlyn Crandall, PT, DPT, CCS, RYT, joined the Acute Conversations Podcast for an episode entitled, “Measuring What Matters: A New Path for Acute Care Practice.”
There, the pair discuss how the CPG was developed, and how the guidelines are already reshaping evaluation, communication and discharge planning across hospital-based physical therapy.
They share what surprised them during development, how psychometric rigor and real-world feasibility shaped the final set, and why standardized measurement doesn’t replace clinical reasoning — it strengthens it.
“I was invited to join the core team with no expectations except learning and assisting,” Fresenko said. “The endeavor turned into so much more for my own professional growth as well as foundational contributions to acute care practice and for that, I am grateful.”
She said she had no idea how much time and effort go into creating a CPG.
“I have a new appreciation for the rigor of CPGs and how important they are to guiding our practice as physical therapists,” she said. “Working alongside the core team, who are all passionate about acute care practice, was an amazing experience. I learned so much about being a member of a research team and the systematic process of creating a CPG.”