Come on, there we go.
Doing another live broadcast here from
APTA CSM in Anaheim, California.
The CEO of World Physiotherapy.
And we've got his entourage,
his bodyguards.
They're lurking around,
making sure everything's taken care of.
Representing the profession across more
than a hundred and twenty countries and
helping shape the future of physiotherapy
worldwide.
Joining us to share what's next for the
profession on a global scale.
Please welcome City J to the live stream.
City, welcome to the show.
Thank you very much, Jimmy.
Appreciate you having here.
Have you come to CSM before?
Is this your first?
Funny enough, this is my first CSM.
I explained it when I came to my
first and went home.
I explained it to my classmates because I
was still a PT student.
And I said it was like a circus
with like eighteen different circuses in
it.
Are you getting that same vibe?
And this is day one, but.
Definitely.
Yeah, definitely I am.
And it's so impressive.
It's unbelievable.
Yeah.
Even though I'm quite used to
international congresses.
But this is mind-blowing.
Yeah, it's a lot.
We tell people to pace themselves.
It's a marathon, not a sprint.
So how do we set up?
Let's start with what is World Physio?
What is that?
I mean,
I saw the name while I was a
PT student,
but I didn't understand it until I was
exposed to people who had been to a
congress,
and then they explained everything.
To me,
it felt like the UN of PT.
It is indeed.
Yeah.
I like that one,
but World Physiotherapy is,
as the name says,
is the World Confederation for Physical
Therapy.
World Physio is our brand name,
but we are legally the World Confederation
for Physical Therapy.
And that's the global body that represents
the profession.
We are a confederation of hundred and
twenty nine countries,
member organization,
and we represent over six hundred thousand
physiotherapists around the world.
Wow.
and uh city's now going to give us
all hundred and twenty nine countries in
alphabetical order whenever you're ready
just go we're not gonna do that um
so now we understand sort of what what
things are on the radar what it would
i mean you just have to pay attention
to the entire world uh that can't be
easy uh what are what are the things
that are on your radar looking at the
scope as wide as it goes the world
well um
I will respond in kind of two different
aspects.
The first one is for World Physiotherapy
as an institution.
As you know,
I've been appointed as the CEO
last April.
So it's less than a year,
even though I've been working for World
Physio for the past ten years.
So we're going through lots of changes as
an institution because we are putting back
our membership at the heart of World
Physio.
And that means a lot.
It's about integrating
our membership's priorities, their vision,
their aspiration across the globe.
And as you know,
it's not a one-size-fits-all.
Yeah, it can't be.
The reality in the United States is very
much different from what we have,
let's say,
in Sudan or what we have in Senegal.
But yet,
we are all part of the same global
community.
with a responsibility for World Physio to
cater for every one of our members' needs.
So for that,
we need to be able to go through
some strategic changes,
redefining our global priorities.
And it's good that we are about to
embark again on another three-year cycle
where we define our strategic objectives.
And it's quite challenging because the
world is changing.
AI is knocking at the door,
being perceived by some as a replacement
for this profession, which it's not.
but also it's something that we need to
embrace and make sure we customize it,
we tailor it to our need,
making sure that it is a supplement rather
than a replacement.
So also globally,
the world is changing and other
professions that work across the medical
field
We need to make sure that we are
fit for purpose,
we are trained for purpose,
our competencies are well-defined,
our scope of practice well-defined,
and this across the globe.
There are countries where it's far more
advanced than what we're working on
because they've been developing this
profession over the past seventy-five
years of World Physio's existence,
where direct access is a reality.
where the title is protected,
where there is a career development plan.
You can enter as a clinician and end
up being a seasoned academic or an
advanced practitioner.
But when you look across the globe,
it's not the same reality.
There are countries where you enter as a
clinician, you retire as a clinician.
There are countries where you have over
ten million population,
with one trained physio.
So the dynamics are very different from
one point to another.
But yet, as a global community,
everything we need is from within.
We don't have to reinvent everything.
Whatever Senegal will be going through in
the next fifty years,
APTA or APA in Australia have gone through
the same process.
Years ago.
And that level of expertise and knowledge
is here.
We just need to leverage it.
We need to enhance the collaboration
within World Physios member.
act as the global community that we should
be and if we do that we will
look at the same direction together and be
able to progress together and turn this
institution is what those the founding
members who sat together in that vision
they have will be able to make it
real i'm ready to go you got me
hyped up that's the hype real that's what
i need to hear
You mentioned AI,
workforce shortages as well,
and changes in healthcare delivery.
What should clinicians focus on to stay
relevant in the next five to ten years?
And you mentioned there a second ago in
terms of AI is,
well first understand what it is,
what it can do, what it can't do,
and then where you fit, I imagine.
And I think the starting point is,
the education,
because to be a physio with or without
AI, you need to be properly trained.
You need to get the set of competence
that a professional needs to have to be
a physio.
AI is a tool.
It's something that invited itself in our
world and you got to deal with it.
it can make our life much easier.
Access to information,
processing huge amount of data,
doing some of the critical kind of
thinking piece on
not the actual skills that we have,
but in the management of the system in
itself.
So it has to be contained,
it has to be controlled.
The problem is not AI in my view,
is the use we as human and professional
rule have of AI.
I don't see a world where AI will
replace
the physician or the clinician.
I would see a world where the clinician
is able to pull out from AI,
utilize AI as the fundamental tool to be
able to deliver the services he was
trained to do.
Because at the end of the day,
our primary role is to deliver those
services.
Any tools now we can use to improve
that service delivery
is welcome yeah we just need to regulate
it understand it turn it into something
that is trustworthy because nature by
night uh is doesn't entertain vacuum right
In the absence of regulation,
it will self-regulate itself at your
disadvantage.
In the absence of proactive decisions,
you will have later on when you realize
that you missed that opportunity to deal
with what it has created and turn it
into what it should have been.
And we should not make that mistake.
Now we have the opportunity to put the
legal framework that comes with it,
to redefine our use,
to make it trustworthy and usable across
the board.
That's where our challenge is.
We should not be led into thinking that
AI is a competitor.
No, it's not.
It's definitely not.
Now,
what will make it good or bad is
the user will have it,
and that lies in our hands.
I got to ask you this,
a hundred and twenty-nine member
organizations,
When you're gonna go in and do work,
imagine you've gotta understand culture
and language and history long before the
first meeting.
And that's simple, but that can't be easy.
Well,
that's the challenge we have as global
leaders.
Yeah.
Because today,
It's about togetherness.
It's about being together because we are
the architects in some way of our own
challenges and our own failures.
Quite often,
instead of understanding what we're
dealing with and address it head on,
We prefer to create parallel alternative,
not knowing that in doing that,
we're not negating or eliminating this.
We only turning it into a threat we'll
have to deal with in the future.
Because today, if you look at each other,
We're different.
We're different from a cultural point of
view.
We're different from many angles or many
ways we as humans have adapted in how
we differentiate each other.
But we're here sharing one passion,
one profession, one vision.
And we can choose to focus on what
we have in common.
or what we have in difference.
And we should not make that because that
difference,
we should embrace it and turn it into
a positive stimulator for what we have in
common, which is this profession.
The strength,
you'd turn it into a strength.
Turn it into a strength because if today
you have a Ghanaian physio,
a Brazilian physio,
An American physio,
as long as they stay within the sphere
of physiotherapy,
they speak the same language,
have the same issue, the same aspiration,
and that's what brings us together.
Now,
our ability as a global organization is
how we can transcend those differences
that we're focusing on,
turn them into strength.
Because there is a saying somewhere around
the world where they say three heads are
better than one.
And we have hundred and twenty nine.
Yes.
Challenge is different.
But hundred and twenty nine countries that
share the same passion, the same share,
the same profession and everything we need
across the board is already is already
within our own membership.
It's about now adopting
some principles around diversity,
inclusion,
recognizing the impact culture and
background can have in the way in which
we deliver those services.
But the services will still be the same
across the board.
An American patient doesn't have more need
than the Brazilian one.
A stroke patient is a stroke patient.
And he doesn't make a difference between,
you know.
There's no border.
No, not at all.
And that is actually our strength as a
global organization.
Yeah, you said it.
It is a daunting task at World Physio
to try to understand what direct access
could mean
for an American physio and what it could
mean for a South African physio.
Because the context is different,
the realities are different,
and the way in which it's going to
be implemented also is different.
And there is a learning for us to
see how complex needs
can be translated into something simple,
understandable across the board.
Yeah.
I'm not going to put you on the
spot.
You travel around the world.
Maybe just some favorite cultures that
maybe you weren't exposed to before your
work started a decade ago with World
Physio.
Where are some places that you've been
that you've seen and just loved it?
Some highlights.
Well, I will mention Tajikistan or
Vietnam because we were invited by WHO to
come and do a gap analysis in a
country where with close to ten million
population you have only one trained
physio was trained in India at the
bachelor degree level so and me when I
got there I
As an African,
it was a cultural shock in a sense
that for a week I was there,
I was the only black guy walking around,
which was quite funny because everyone was
friendly, amazed in some way.
But when you get into a meeting,
you're introduced as senior staff from a
major organization,
then immediately you got people's
attention and you start talking about
complex
health policies how this if you compare it
to the United Kingdom where we base how
everything was shocking you know yeah we
have direct access yeah yeah it's about
explaining to somebody from the Ministry
of Health what a scope of practice is
for the physiotherapist but
If I look back seven years after,
I'm just so grateful for being part of
that change because today,
not only we have,
we introduced the first entry-level
program in that country,
we've kind of moved people from the
Ministry of Health to our different
congresses,
exposed them to the reality of the
profession, the scope of practice,
the level of education across the globe,
and today,
Those individuals are our champions in the
system, making everything they want,
everything they can to help advance the
agenda of that profession.
And as a global organization,
if you look back,
knowing that Tadjiki Sen is not even yet
a member of World Physio,
But because of the work we're doing,
we have introduced that profession in that
country with a contemporary understanding
of what the profession is.
That's what we call making an impact and
changing the future of the profession.
Every few years,
you have an event that brings together
physios from member organizations from
around the globe.
One is coming up.
It's not that far from where we are
now.
Looks like we're going to head to Mexico.
Let's talk about that.
Well,
twenty twenty seven World Physio Congress
will be in Guadalajara.
And as you rightly say, this next door.
Yeah.
And which gave me the opportunity to call
on all American physios to
prepare to attend that Congress because
beyond what it offers from a scientific
point of view or education point of view,
but it's also about celebrating a
profession.
It's also about sharing.
It's also about belonging to a global
community.
Because one thing about physio across the
board is
I've never seen people who love sharing,
cherish sharing more than the physios.
Because like I said to you earlier,
before being the CEO of World Physio,
I was the head of development with World
Physio.
gave me the opportunity to go to Vietnam,
work on upgrading the entry level program
to West Africa, to Central Asia,
to other South East Asian country.
So that gives you like a global kind
of view of what's happening in the
profession.
But everywhere we go,
when other profession they will have to
mobilize a lot of resources to develop
teaching materials to to kind of assert
something for us it always started at the
voluntary level every time we needed
something it's from within
we will find individuals that will be
ready to jump on the next flight to
go and support the development of their
profession in another country.
And that's remarkable.
That's fabulous.
And that's what characterizes physios
across the board.
Now, obviously,
the state of the profession in Mexico or
in South America is very different from
what we have in the United States.
But as a global profession,
how good are we?
if everything works in one country and in
the neighboring country we still have a
lot to do and that's the message that
i'm carrying it's not about yes going to
a scientific event where you can network
it's about
support.
It's about togetherness.
And it's about building on the future of
our profession, which is our future.
You've got something a little different.
I'll explain what I know and you correct
me.
But if someone's going to present on a
topic at World Physio,
they have to have somebody from other
member organizations.
They have to have people from other
countries with them.
So it can't just be a presentation of
all Americans or people from France.
Is that close and why?
Not exactly, because for Focus Symposia,
for example,
it's a partnership you can have.
Jimmy from the United States,
somebody else from another country,
they come together around specific topics.
Now,
when it comes to abstracts and other
sessions, you can, you as an American,
come in and present your own abstracts.
Somebody else can do that.
But we...
We at World Physio,
we try to make sure that in the
program, in the making of program,
we enabling connections.
We encouraging people to come together
from different horizon to come and work
together.
And that's why a Congress program
committee has been put together.
It is led by Dr. Judy Dutch,
who is American.
But in that committee,
we have representatives from all the five
regions of world physio,
from highly developed countries,
from low- and middle-income countries.
We've got academic clinicians.
We've got seasoned practitioners and early
career physios.
We're trying to bring everyone together to
get that global perspective.
And that's the same method that is being
used for each one of these sessions.
Yeah.
So in one topic,
you're going to have multicultural views
in one presentation.
So one won't dominate.
So I love how you bake that into
the programming to make sure that's never
separated out in that event.
Yeah, because it's about collaboration.
Sure.
it's about sharing knowledge it's about
also being together it's about breaking
those fictive barriers that we have we're
coming together as a global community
we're coming together demonstrating what
diversity and inclusion means for world
physio in in
living example.
Exactly.
And the simple fact that we are moving
from one continent to another,
from one country to another every two
years tells you about how important that
togetherness is for us.
And if you look at World Physio as
a global body,
We scattered around the world,
and it's United States,
I live in South of France,
some are in Germany,
some others are in Kuala Lumpur,
because that's the global community we are
together.
And today,
technology has allowed us to do a lot
more than we could have done probably a
few years back.
It's wild.
All right.
Last thing we do is on the it's
called the parting shot.
So what's a what's a sentiment, a thought,
a quote,
something you would want to leave the
global audience of physio to think about?
Well, before that, if you allow me,
I would like to just to say a
few words about one major activities we
have in this year,
which is the celebration of our seventy
fifth anniversary.
Seventy five years anniversary.
It's not a small feat.
And today we have this open a call
for nomination for our member organization
and they will be responsible for
nominating seventy five physiotherapists
that have marked
their time from nineteen fifty one to
today we call them the seventy five not
worthy physios so we will this year
celebrate those who have contributed in
this fantastic journey of world
physiotherapy that started in nineteen
fifty one to today now to come back
to uh
to your saying.
It's just like as an African,
if you're asking me to tell you about
what I'm saying, I'm like,
one is just a bit too small.
I mean,
if you ask me to give you twenty,
I would be very happy.
But what I would say is just this
belongs to us.
World Physio is not my property,
it's for all of us Physios around the
world.
And when you're managing something that
belongs to everyone, there is a saying,
they say, do not do it alone,
do not understand it alone,
and do not make it alone.
No, sorry, do not do it alone,
do not own it alone.
And why is that important?
Because
If we share that together and everything I
do on the name of the institution is
something that I talk to you about,
we discuss it, we do it together.
So it's stopping one person's business and
become our business.
And in being our business,
because of the contributions of the three
heads is smarter than one head.
We will do it smartly.
We will own it.
And once we own it,
we will sustain it.
Because if today I want to remove your
beautiful bow tie,
you will do everything in your power to
keep it on your neck because it belongs
to you.
Let's make sure that World Physio is not
our own property.
It belongs to all of us.
And if it belongs to all of us,
We will all contribute and work towards
sustaining it.
And the best way to sustaining it is
to make it fit for purpose so that
our members will always cherish it,
will always feel like this is something
they need and this is something worth
protecting.
Love it.
We'll share the link in the notes that
go along with this episode for the
Seventy-Five as well as the Congress
coming up in Guadalajara next year.
Appreciate the time.
Thank you for coming here and being part
of this with us.
Much appreciated.
Thank you for having me, Jimmy.
It was a pleasure.
Thank you.