NEWS-Line for Physical Therapists & PT Assistants

Q&A with Chai Rasavong, Founder and President of CyberPT.com

FEATURE STORY	08/01/2009
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Chai Rasavong, MPT, MBA, received both his BS in Kinesiology and his master's of physical therapy from University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his master's of business administration from University of Wisconsin-Parkside and is certified through the APTA as a clinical instructor. Rasavong is the Founder and President of CyberPT.com. Q: Why did you become a physical therapist? A: I wanted to become a physical therapist because I was always involved in sports and wanted to be involved in a health profession where I would be able to help people achieve a higher quality of life. Q: What is CyberPT.com? A: Our website is dedicated to being a comprehensive online physical therapy resource for individuals seeking information on physical therapy. No matter who you are: a PT professional, student, other healthcare provider, employer, or patient you will find some kind of value when visiting the site. If you are not able to find your answer on our site, you can email our therapists who will hopefully be able to answer your questions. Q: What inspired you to start this website? A: I had initially drafted a business plan for the website as a class project in PT school, thinking it would be nice to have a comprehensive online resource for physical therapy information similar to WebMD. After I graduated I had discussed this idea with a patient of mine who had web development experience and loved the idea of having a website that promoted physical therapy, as she strongly believed in PT after recovering from an injury. Later I pursued my MBA and developed a more detailed business plan and decided to go with the plan. I contacted my former patient and she decided to help me start up the website! Q: Typically, what are your day-to-day responsibilities in maintaining CyberPT.com? A: I am involved in all aspects of our company from marketing, web page development, content contribution and answering questions from visitors to our site. A typical day for me involves monitoring the website, communicating with fellow physical therapists or other healthcare providers who help out with CyberPT, researching possible topics for articles, answering "Ask a PT" questions and contacting/meeting possible advertising partners. Q: Who benefits most from the website? A: Almost everyone who visits our site find some kind of value it in. There is no charge to utilize our site and we get a variety of questions from patients, physical therapists and students. You can visit both our patient and professional forums to see some of these questions answered by user name "Ask a PT." Q: How has the response been to your website? Do you often get feedback from patients and professionals? A: We have had great responses from professionals for our website especially with exhibiting at various conferences in the past such as the APTA National Student Conclave, Rehab Summit, or the WPTA conferences. We have also gone and given talks to PT and PTA students at many educational institutions as well and have gotten much positive feedback from these students. Patients have often emailed us back and expressed their thanks and gratitude in helping them understand their injury and physical therapy. Q: What do you feel is of the greatest concern to PTs today? A: I believe the greatest concern to PTs today is the increasing costs of healthcare and the limits which insurance companies are putting on their policy holders. With limited visits, the physical therapist today must be able to maximize treatment sessions available and to educate patients effectively with a home exercise program with progression. We have not discussed this on the website, but I think this would be a great topic for the future. Q: What are the greatest challenges you face in your job? A: I believe the greatest challenge is to be able to balance my personal life with my professional life. I work on CyberPT part-time and work for an outpatient orthopedic clinic/contract myself out part-time for a variety of settings. Q: Do you find that working in a clinic helps you to more effectively manage Cyberpt.com, as far as keeping up with new therapy techniques is concerned? A: I find being exposed to multiple environments and having the opportunity to meet and work alongside multiple physical therapists with different specialties allows me the opportunity to further develop my professional skills and stimulate learning. This has been very advantageous for me in regards to helping me effectively mange CyberPT. Q: What do you like the most about your job? What do you dislike the most? A: I love being able to promote physical therapy and being able to help visitors understand more about what the physical therapy profession is. There really isn't anything I dislike about my job. Q: What is the most rewarding part of your job? A: The most rewarding part of my job is to have someone email or call us and thank us for providing them with useful and helpful information that made a difference in their lives. Q: What advice do you have for others thinking of entering your specialty? A: My advice to others is that if you want to enter a profession that is rewarding and you are able to make an impact in someone's life, physical therapy is definitely the profession for you! Q: How has starting your website helped you to grow professionally? A: I believe that starting the website has further developed my strong desire to continuously want to learn more. I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to be exposed to other physical therapy professionals, students, other health care professionals, and patients with various conditions and injuries. Q: What is the most important thing you've learned over the course of your career? A: The most important thing I've learned is if you believe in something, do not give up and to always strive to achieve it. You can make it happen!
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