Provider Spotlight: Bill Rein Helps the complex PT Patient

In order to know more about Bill Rein and one of his favorite topics, we needed to get past his least favorite.

“Yeah, I don’t really embrace talking about myself. So let’s get that out of the way,” Rein began.

Just did.

Once acknowledged, Rein spoke (quite willingly, by the way) about his passion for treating patients with chronic, persistent pain issues. He traced it back to the beginning.

“All of the professors and mentors I had were excellent working with their hands, but more than that they were great clinical decision-makers,” said Rein. “I wanted to model my career after those people.”

At Rein’s first job, he had the good fortune to work with a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Manual Therapists, a provider who completed stringent post-graduation specialization programs in the field of neuro-musculoskeletal disorders and the use of hands-on treatments of muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints.

“I worked with him for two years, and he kind of pushed me in a direction to treat spine conditions, neck, back, headaches, the sacroiliac region. I really took a liking to that,” said Rein.

That pushed Rein to earn his specialty certification as an Orthopedic Clinical Specialist (OCS). After 2,000 hours of direct patient care in orthopedics and a rigorous exam showing they have expertise in diagnosing, treating, and preventing orthopedic conditions, the OCS brings that additional level of understanding to their patients.

And that’s what Rein did. Still, there was some frustration.

“I felt I was getting four out of five patients to where they needed to be, but it was that fifth one that kept me up at night,” said Rein. “So I needed to keep searching for ways to help those I wasn’t able to treat effectively, patients with chronic issues who had been seen by multiple healthcare providers and still weren’t getting the relief they sought.”

So Rein kept at it.

Doing a lot of reading, engaging in a lot of research on his own, and teaching as part of his orthopedic residency, Rein’s work delivered him to the place he is now, where treating the most complicated patients has become his passion.

“There's something about the shared collaboration, trying to figure out with patients exactly what is going on and how we can help them, and where we, the medical establishment, may have missed the boat in treating their pain,” said Rein.

Rein feels he can take the vast majority of those challenging patients and find something that he can offer them that will help. That’s not 100%, though.

“There are still patients where physical therapy just isn’t going to work,” said Rein. “But I feel confident that I can offer things to them even if it’s just in the way of explaining what they are going through, to plant the seeds that might help them to not have to get an injection, or be on medication, or have a surgery later on, if I give them the tools they need now.”

And he strongly believes in a team approach.

“I feel very comfortable collaborating to get patients the help they need, facilitating connections with providers—a physiatrist, an orthopedic physician, a primary care specialist—who excel in these cases,” said Rein.

Rein estimates that about a quarter of his patients have chronic conditions.

“There's someone on my schedule pretty much every day that has a persistent pain condition,” he said.

Rein’s interviewer (me) admitted to having low back issues for much of his life. Is that considered chronic pain?

“I’m definitely not saying the low back issues you just described, which are fairly common, haven’t been debilitating and life-affecting for you,” said Rein. “But that's very different than the patient who's had fibromyalgia for 30 years, has severe headaches every day, and low back pain with pain radiating down the legs and is barely able to move. That’s a more challenging population.”

It’s a challenge Rein embraces.

“It’s about taking the emotion out of the pain experience, looking at it objectively, being a detective with you and trying to figure out how your body is working. When you connect the dots, it’s a very powerful thing.

Bill Rein serves patients at Advanced PT’s Appleton West location on Casaloma Drive.

He received his master's degree in Physical Therapy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and subsequently earned his Board Certification in Orthopedic Physical Therapy. Additionally, Bill is certified in ASTYM (augmented soft tissue mobilization) and Trigger Point Dry Needling (Level 3).

His professional interests involve seeing patients who have shoulder, knee, and spinal issues.

Provider Spotlight: Dr. Will Hartmann, PT at Lawrence University

Dr. Will Hartmann working with an athlete in the athletic training room at Lawrence University

When you work with competitive athletes to get them back to their sports following injury, does it help if you were a competitive athlete who suffered a few injuries and endured lots of rehab yourself?

Physical therapist Will Hartmann of Advanced Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine thinks it might.

To a certain extent.

“It helps athletes relate to me if they know it,” Hartmann said. “But I'm the washed-up version now.”

The former Division 1 athlete played five years of college football with the Wisconsin Badgers and had a litany of injuries (concussion, patellar tendinitis, lacerated kidney) connected to his days on the gridiron. Eschewing any details or elaboration, Hartmann recited his traumas like items in a bulleted list.

Just tell me a little about your most memorable, then.

“Yeah, the elbow injury in my first spring game at Camp Randall. I picked off a pass and dislocated it when I tried to score a touchdown. After the game, the coach saw me in the training room and said, ‘That’s why you take a knee.’ Thanks a lot, coach. Lesson learned.”

Now in his seventh year working with Lawrence University athletes, Hartmann’s approach is, in many respects, just that direct, albeit without the sarcasm.

“I tell injured athletes, if you want to do this, we can do this,” said Hartmann. “Or if you don't want to do that kind of work, we’ll just take it down a notch. It all depends on what the person wants to put in.”

Much like himself in days of yore, several of his Division 3 college athletes view their sport as their job, working out multiple times a day just about every day of the year. They bring that same focus to the rehab process when they get injured.

“I’m working with a girl who’s coming into the athletic training room twice daily to do rehab. That shows the level of commitment familiar to me,” said Hartmann. “I’ve been there; I’ve done it.”

His role at Lawrence is to help with the treatment of complex injuries. Hartmann’s sports medicine background and orthopedic training allow him to treat anyone who enters the door. Working with Advanced PT’s athletic trainers at LU, Hartmann is included when his expertise is needed, typically when an injury isn’t improving or rehabbing something more intricate, like an ACL reconstruction.

To further progress his manual skills and meet a wider variety of patient needs, Hartmann completed an Orthopedic Residency. An additional year of specialized training, the residency includes one-on-one mentorships with experts in the field to enhance clinical decision-making. Combined with his Strength & Conditioning Specialist certification, Hartmann is well-suited to communicate and collaborate with LU’s athletic trainers and strength coaches.

“We do a good job at Lawrence treating these athletes and getting good outcomes,” said Hartmann.

Advanced PT has deep roots at the collegiate level and has treated LU undergraduates—both athletes and students in the Conservatory of Music—for three decades.

At the time of this interview, Hartmann was preparing for spring sports at LU and the inevitable uptick of injuries by getting some care for himself: he had an arthroscopic knee procedure the following day.

And he answered the final question before it was asked.

“No, this isn’t related to football,” he said.