Mark Shepherd joins the podcast to discuss person-centered clinical reasoning, lifestyle medicine, and how to improve the way PTs make sense of pain.
Mark is Program Director of the Bellin College OMPT Fellowship, a DPT faculty member, and a clinician who blends manual therapy, patient values, and lifestyle-based interventions to build clearer clinical hypotheses. His recent publication introduces an updated reasoning model: the person-centered hypothesis, which emphasizes individualized sense-making over rigid diagnostic categories.
In this episode:
• What “person-centered hypothesis” means in practice
• How lifestyle medicine empowers rather than dilutes OMPT care
• Improving reasoning in complex pain cases
• Why clinicians should anchor decisions in patient values
• Mark’s journey through education, teaching, and fellowship leadership
A must-listen for clinicians and educators who want a more modern, human approach to reasoning.
Hands On Hands Off: Manual Therapy & Orthopedic Physical Therapy (AAOMPT)