A common misconception is that Clinical Exercise Physiologists and Physiotherapists are the same health profession, but that is not correct; we are different! As a Clinical Exercise Physiologist with four years of clinical experience, I have often encountered this situation.
Let’s clarify the differences and similarities between these two professions.
Similarities
Both professions are university-qualified allied health professionals requiring at least four years of study.
Also, both professions work with a large range of health conditions, injuries, and disabilities, having clinical roles in acute, sub-acute, and chronic care.
They both follow a scope of clinical practice individually as a clinician and as a profession, and should understand when a particular case requires referral to another health professional.
And both professions are registered health professionals in Australia, the United States of America, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Differences
Clinical Exercise Physiologists assess and treat patients and use clinical exercise and behavior change interventions as their primary modality of therapy.
On the other hand, physiotherapists assess and treat patients and utilize multiple treatment modalities such as manual therapy (joint manipulation, massage, dry needling). Also, they can utilize exercise therapy within their personal scope of practice and experience.
Clinical Exercise Physiologists cannot diagnose musculoskeletal injuries but will utilize diagnostic tests to investigate and influence their exercise therapy.
Physiotherapists can diagnose musculoskeletal injuries, providing their patients with a diagnosis.
Clinical Exercise Physiologists have extensive education on exercise prescription/delivery and behavior change for chronic health conditions. Their scope of practice is to provide exercise therapy in the context of mental health, cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, musculoskeletal, oncology, neurological, and metabolic pathologies.
However, physiotherapists can also work with a broad range of health conditions as Clinical Exercise Physiologists do but may focus on other aspects of treatment such as manual therapy, prescription of mobility aids, gait training, and chest/airway clearance in the context of cardiorespiratory or neurological patients.
Clinical Exercise Physiologists specialize in exercise prescription, modification, and delivery. Whereas, physiotherapists train in varying degrees of prescription and delivery of clinical exercise but also utilize other treatment modalities within their patient care.
Generally, you will see Physiotherapists more in acute care of health conditions and injuries, and Clinical Exercise Physiologists more in long-term care of health conditions and injuries. BUT these both can work in all stages of healthcare.
To conclude, as the burden of lifestyle-related health conditions rapidly increases worldwide, the need for highly qualified allied healthcare professionals in exercise and lifestyle modification is growing.
Clinical Exercise Physiologists are becoming more valued for their skills and roles in the healthcare system. Physiotherapists also have skills in this field and have always played a major role in healthcare. The shift we are seeing is how these two professions are increasingly collaborating to improve patient care.
Ultimately, I understand the confusion between these two health professionals due to the overlap in skills and scope of practice. However, I believe that we should adopt a collaborative approach between Clinical Exercise Physiologists and Physiotherapists to assist patients in reaching their goals while focusing on their individual scopes of practice and referring when the other health professional can provide additional assistance.
