Dr. Drew Contreras, PT, DPT, SCS—Lieutenant Colonel (retired), former White House Medical Unit PT to Presidents Obama and Biden, and current APTA Vice President of Strategic Affairs—delivers a masterclass in professional evolution that will fundamentally shift how you view your career trajectory.

This is surgical precision strategy from someone who's operated at the highest levels of American healthcare.

Dr. Contreras dismantles the "comfort crisis" plaguing PT, where professionals complain about constraints while avoiding the uncomfortable work of actual transformation. His brings up a great point, too: venture capitalists are flooding PT because they see massive opportunity that many therapists are too comfortable to seize.

The Analogy-Based Insights You'll Gain:

• The Tree-Cutting Analogy: How value-based care mirrors service industries you already understand—and why PTs must stop being "branch pickers" and become strategic planners
• The Netflix Model of Healthcare: Why flexible, on-demand PT delivery (including treating astronauts in space) represents the future of patient engagement
• From Skilled Laborer to Expert Consultant: The mindset shift from counting clamshells to providing high-level clinical consultation that commands premium pricing
• The Spider-Man Principle: Why ordering imaging and labs comes with great responsibility—and how embracing this elevates PT to true doctoring status

Strategic Intelligence from the Inside:

Contreras reveals how political and healthcare leadership actually views PT's potential, sharing insights from Pentagon health clinics to White House medical operations. His perspective on "old guard versus new guard" leadership offers a roadmap for navigating professional transition without burning bridges.

The Uncomfortable Truth: Healthcare's shift is here and we already risk being late to the game. PTs equipped with "coloring-book anatomy knowledge" (it will make sense when you listen to the episode) successfully operated in primary care roles decades ago. Today's DPT graduates possess exponentially superior tools and knowledge, yet many lack the courage to step into their full scope of practice. And the "old guard" has to step up and embrace this too, even if it means adding to your knowledge base.

This episode will arm you with the strategic framework to thrive in healthcare's inevitable transformation.

For therapists ready to evolve beyond traditional treatment rooms into primary care leadership roles, this conversation provides the roadmap. For those comfortable with the status quo, it serves as a wake-up call to the professional reckoning already underway.

Read Dr. Contreras' bio here

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What distinguishes an explorer from a maintainer in the therapy profession? Why are outside disruptors capturing market share while traditional practices struggle? How can clinicians leverage cutting-edge research on mitochondrial DNA and movement disorders to revolutionize treatment approaches? We tackle these questions and more in a dialogue that bridges clinical excellence with business innovation.

Alex offers a provocative parable about buying lottery tickets that perfectly captures our profession's hesitation to proactively engage with healthcare transformation. "We're losing workforce," he warns, "but we're still failing to see that we need to go out and look into these risk-based contracts, at least explore, at least understand what they are and how to operationalize them."

We examine the stark contrast between traditional care models and patient-centered approaches that leverage technology. Is it better to "hold a patient's hand" through dozens of visits, or transition to guided self-management after fewer sessions? This question gets to the heart of therapy's value proposition in an evolving healthcare ecosystem.

The irony doesn't escape us: therapists expertly help patients recognize and build upon their strengths, yet we collectively struggle to do the same for our profession. The gap between the actual value therapists provide and our ability to communicate that value creates the perfect opportunity for disruption – either from outside forces or, ideally, from innovative thinkers within.

External disruptors aren't succeeding because they provide better clinical care. They're succeeding because they've packaged therapy expertise in ways that solve specific problems for stakeholders, speaking the language of value, efficiency, and outcomes that resonates with payers and health systems.

This conversation isn't meant to be comfortable – it's meant to be catalyzing. The explorer's mindset we advocate requires questioning established practices, reimagining care delivery, and having the courage to venture into unfamiliar territory.

As Alex puts it: "I'm optimistic because I think the better days are ahead, because that's my nature, but I'm also realistic that it may take a catastrophe for those models to be absorbed. We just want to be on a good hill when the catastrophe hits."

Are you ready to climb that hill? To join us as explorers charting new territories in healthcare transformation? To balance rigorous clinical standards with business innovation?

Listen now to discover how adopting an explorer's mindset could transform your practice and ensure our profession remains central to healthcare's future. Because the future of therapy will be written by those willing to explore it – and we believe you have an important chapter to contribute.

• The explorer's mindset encourages seeking new horizons in therapy.
• Therapists must adapt to changing healthcare delivery models.
• Curiosity and innovation are essential for professional growth.
• Understanding value-based care is crucial for therapists.
• Therapists need to articulate their value to stakeholders.
• Research consumption strategies can enhance clinical reasoning.
• Collaboration with other healthcare providers is vital.
• Growth can be achieved through efficiency and subtraction.
• Therapists should prepare for risk-based contracts.
• The future of therapy depends on adaptability and exploration.

#TherapyLeadership #HealthcareInnovation #PhysicalTherapy #ValueBasedCare #PracticeManagement

Link to the transcript here.

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Episode Summary:

In the latest episode of Future Proof PT, hosts Dana Strauss and Alex Bendersky, along with special guest Jerry Durham, tackle the critical crossroads facing physical therapy as a profession. They challenge listeners to question whether they're functioning as true healthcare professionals or merely "operators" in a broken system.

The trio discusses how healthcare is rapidly transforming around us, including recent proposed policy changes in the 2026 Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule that could significantly impact physical therapists. While time-based providers like primary care physicians are seeing increases of 5-9%, independent PTs face a -1% adjustment. The trio make the case that this should be a wake-up call for the profession.

Key topics covered include:

• The value of hands-on patient relationships in an AI-driven healthcare landscape
• Why team-based care is essential for survival in evolving payment models
• The importance of understanding the broader healthcare ecosystem beyond PT
• Strategies for demonstrating value to referring physicians and payers
• Embracing the shift to outpatient and in-home care

This conversation serves as both a warning and a call to action for physical therapists to "look up" from their treatment tables, redefine their professional identity, and secure their place in the healthcare of tomorrow.

Whether you're a clinic owner, practicing PT, or student, or in a non-clinical role, this episode delivers uncomfortable truths alongside actionable insights that could transform your approach to practice. You won’t want to miss it.

Link to the episode transcript here.

Subscribe to the Future Proof PT newsletter and receive exclusive resources that grow with every episode!

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel

Check out our friend and colleague's *course on AI for PTs (and so many others!) by Cody Lee, PT, DPT

*affiliate link