A conversational excerpt from a YouTube video (host Will Humphreys and a guest) arguing that now is an opportune moment to become (or reimagine being) a physical therapist. The guest cites industry-scale figures — a $600 billion musculoskeletal market with 25–45% waste — and claims 85% of musculoskeletal conditions can be managed conservatively by biomechanically-informed practitioners. The discussion links systemic, protocol-driven workplaces to workforce attrition and suggests greater opportunity exists for clinicians who reclaim clinical creativity and business options.
So why is it that you say this is the best time in the history of our profession to become a physical therapist?
That's a great question, and it really creates an oxymoron for us. But let's look at the facts. The musculoskeletal industry, of which we are a part of, is a $600 billion industry. And they estimate that 25 to 45% of that is waste. And the reason that there's a lot of waste in it is that people don't access the medical system through a primary care musculoskeletal specialist. And as a result, there's a ton of waste when we know that 85% of the musculoskeletal conditions could be taken care of conservatively by a medical practitioner that knows biomechanics and can help those injuries and save a lot of costs. Now, why are people leaving the profession? They haven't been told that. They haven't been shown the door. They've been shown into a system or shoved into a system and given a protocol that takes away their creativity, takes away their brain power, and takes away all of the service attitude that most therapists get into the profession to have. They're looking at this going, I don't think I want to do this for 30 years. And I have to agree with them that those systems are not conducive. I wouldn't want to work in that system. And that's why I don't, because I did work in one of those systems. It doesn't encourage us to be the passionate professionals that we went to school to be.
Yeah, I love that answer. Because I think to your point, from the perspective of 20,000 people leaving because they've bought into this narrative that the only way I can be a physical therapist, if I want to be a business owner or a leader in an outpatient setting, is I have to go make $75,000 a year and see 80 visits a week, and that's it. Maybe if I want to earn more money, I have to take on the nightmare of owning a practice, which also is a narrative that isn't true. There's lots of resources now to open practices, but that's the entire perspective. And what you're saying is there's $600 billion of demand and we are the experts. And so you're saying just that fact alone is more than enough reason to establish that if we understood what was possible, that we could really write our own futures if we just knew what the possibilities were.
Sure. And I tell New grads and doctorate that are getting ready to graduate, that you're going to have a successful career, but it won't be like mine.
