What if the area your patient is complaining about isn't actually the source of their pain? As healthcare providers, it's easy to focus your attention on the area that hurts, but what happens when we're treating the symptoms instead of identifying what's actually driving the problem? Welcome to The FAKTR Podcast, where we talk about the stuff they didn't teach you in school, how to grow your practice, refine your clinical skills, and get better results for your patients. We're here to help you navigate the real-world challenges of being a healthcare provider, from delivering top-notch patient care to running a business that doesn't run you into the ground. Whether you're fresh out of school or scaling your practice, we're diving into effective, cutting-edge treatments to get patients better faster. We'll also talk about business strategies and tactics to help you work smarter and not harder, and the mindset shifts required to thrive as a top performer in your field. so you can build a career you love without burning out. If you're ready to learn what works and what doesn't from leading experts, industry innovators, and respected clinicians across a wide range of specialties, you are in the right place, my friend. Let's dive in. Welcome back to the Factor Podcast.

I'm your host, Jessica Riddle, and in today's episode, we're joined by FAKTR's Director of Education, Dr. Todd Riddle, for a conversation that challenges us to look beyond the obvious when evaluating and treating patients with musculoskeletal pain. Dr. Riddle will introduce the concept of the victim versus the villain. And explores why a more comprehensive approach to patient assessment can make all the difference in clinical outcomes. We'll also take a closer look at the biopsychosocial model of pain and how biological, psychological, and social factors can influence a patient's experience and ultimately their recovery. Whether you're a seasoned clinician or just getting started in practice, today's episode is a great reminder that Sometimes the most important step toward better patient outcomes is in asking better questions. Let's dive in.

Again, some current trends in evaluation and rehabilitation. We're going to differentiate between an area of pain and an area of dysfunction. We're going to assimilate some evidence-based assessments, and I think that's probably a lot of the value you're going to get out of this is seeing some assessments that I like to use in practice that I've picked up along the way that have been very valuable to me. And then we're going to look at some case reports because I think that that's really where this comes home for a lot of practitioners is we'll take some athletes that I've worked with, some people that I've worked with, and kind of break down what was going on with them and show you how we determined what was actually the victim and the villain so that we were able to expedite an outcome that was useful to to that athlete. So jumping right into it here. As I mentioned a minute ago, it's kind of been my experience that we as clinicians, and I'm not just talking about chiropractors, I've seen this with certainly medical doctors, I've seen this with athletic trainers, I've seen this with physical therapists, anybody that treats a patient, we tend to get tunnel vision and focus specifically on the place that hurts. And for the purposes of this discussion, I'm going to call the place that hurts the victim, the area or anatomy of the body that is painful, right? But I think that if we take it one step further and we focus on the area that may be driving the pain, I think we're going to see some better outcomes. I think we'll see some faster results.