Beyond the individual: population health and physical therapy

Improving the health of populations is critical to meeting global health targets. The purpose of this article is to define population health and differentiate it from related concepts and introduce a framework that can be used to inform the population-based practice of physical therapists. The Population-Based Practice (PBP) Framework is modified from the Public Health Nursing Intervention Wheel and can be used to understand levels (i.e., systems, community, and individual) and types (i.e., screening and outreach, referral and follow-up, health teaching and coaching, consultation and collaboration, advocacy and policy development, and social marketing) of population-based practice. Several physical therapy examples illustrate selected cells within the model. The PBP Framework provides practitioners, educators, and scholars with a new way to envision population-based practice for physical therapists. Such a shift in both thinking and practice is needed if physical therapists are to use their unique skills to move beyond the individual, embracing population-based practice to improve health outcomes and reduce health disparities while controlling costs.