What can a physiotherapist tell me about my disorder?

Physiotherapists are not able to definitively determine disease states. They are, however, interested in and responsible for defining movement and pain disorders which arise from disease states.

In Canada there are 13 "controlled acts". These are acts that are potentially harmful if performed by untrained and unregulated people and include the act of communicating a diagnosis. Only an MD is authorized to communicate a diagnosis.

The communication of the conclusions reached by the physiotherapist following an assessment of a client has the following properties similar to the controlled act of communicating a diagnosis:

• Communicating to the individual or his or her personal representative, the physiotherapist's assessment findings which identify the cause of symptoms of the individual in circumstances in which it is reasonably foreseeable that the individual will rely on the information to decide whether to agree to the intervention recommended by the physiotherapist.
• Using the necessary data from the assessment to draw relevant conclusions about the effect of the disorder on functional movement. In reaching this determination. The physiotherapist relies on specific measured criteria that reflect the domains of impairment, disability and handicap. Clients are then informed how specific findings of impairment, disability or handicap are integrated when forming conclusions.