A week ago, I had the chance to attend APTA CSM, one of the premier gatherings for physical therapy professionals. Walking the conference floor, a few clear themes emerged.
The Vendor Floor Was Buzzing
EHR platforms were everywhere, which says something about how investor money is flooding in while dissatisfied clinics consider new options. Incumbent platforms were built to support a fee-for-service world that's quickly becoming unsustainable, and a new wave of solutions is rushing in to fill the gap. Alongside EHRs, remote therapeutic monitoring (RTM) was a major topic, from home exercise programs and care management (like SaRA Health) to motion detection tools that help verify patient engagement. Scribing was another hot area, with both standalone companies (like Athelas and Comprehend) and EHR-integrated features competing for attention. The line between "is this a feature or a company?" is blurring fast.
Most surprising to me were a range of creative workforce solutions on full display, such as travel PT networks, "Uber for PT" models, and digital front door platforms designed to better match patients with providers while cutting out unnecessary administrative layers.
And there were many hardware vendors selling all kinds of medical devices and workout equipment, massage tools, etc. But as a software investor, I'm not going to try to analyze their relative benefits.
The Industry Challenges Are Real
Staffing burnout and shortages are acute. I was surprised to see just as many PT providers were at the conference recruiting as there were vendors selling, a telling sign of how strained the workforce has become. References to "PT mills" weren't uncommon, and the sense that experienced clinicians are leaving the profession altogether added weight to those concerns.
Margin compression is the other pressure squeezing clinics, which came up in multiple hallway discussions. Evolving Medicaid and Medicare policies, combined with shifting commercial payer dynamics, are pushing traditional fee-for-service models to the breaking point. Efficiency gains can only stretch so far. New revenue streams such as RTM, value-based care arrangements, self-pay models are increasingly necessary just to keep the lights on.
AI and education also came up repeatedly, and not just in a celebratory way. Integrating AI into clinical workflows raises genuinely hard questions: Is it appropriate to use AI for a SOAP note? How do you train new clinicians in an environment where the youngest staff adopt new tools instinctively while others are still catching up? Old teaching models weren't built for this moment, and the profession is still figuring out new ones.
An Interesting Moment
CSM left me with the clear sense that the physical therapy industry is both grappling with new challenges and trying to take hold of exciting new opportunities. The tools to build a more sustainable, efficient, and patient-centered model exist, but so do the structural and cultural barriers to adopting them. The next few years will likely separate clinics that adapt from those that don't.