The Revised Research Agenda for Physical Therapy

In its recent history, the physicaltherapy profession embarked onat least 2 attempts to create a research agenda. The first attempt occurred in December 1993 when a panel of researchers representing different clinical foci and levels of expertise was convened to develop an agenda. This effort was not as successful as hoped because the panel could not reach consensus on an agenda that would benefit the profession as a whole. The conclu-sion was reached that all research-ers ’ programs of research were important; thus, no decisions were made to prescribe a program of research for the profession. Despite this unremarkable outcome, the profession initiated a second attempt to create an agenda. Begin-ning in 1998, a call was placed to presidents of all components (ie, chapters and sections) of the Ameri-can Physical Therapy Association (APTA), academic administrators of physical therapist education pro-grams, and members of the Section on Research asking for nominations of individuals to participate in the development of a Clinical Research Agenda. Ultimately, 48 nominated individuals were selected. Two meetings were held, one in the fall and the second in the winter of 1998. Additionally, an Editorial Advi-sory Panel (EAP) met between the 2 meetings. The EAP, as its name implies, edited the output from the first meeting and presented it for dis-cussion during the second meeting. Subsequent to the second confer-ence and a second round of editing by the EAP, the 128 research ques-tions comprising the draft agenda were sent to a sample of APTA mem-bership for final review. Subsequent to the second review and the results of an algorithm to determine which items would be maintained, 72 ques-tions were incorporated into the final agenda. Ultimately, the Clinical Research Agenda was published in Physical Therapy1 so that it could be widely disseminated to the commu-nity of scientists and physical thera-pist clinicians.