Evidence-Based Practice
EBP courses for physiotherapists:evidence-based practice
Understand evidence-based practice, apply it in clinic, and train with a provider that builds every one of its courses on the evidence in the literature.
In brief. Evidence-based practice is a method of clinical decision-making that brings together three sources: research evidence, the clinician’s expertise and the patient’s preferences. It is not a matter of “applying the studies”: it means weighing up what the literature shows, what practice teaches and what the patient wants.
What is EBP in physiotherapy?
Evidence-based practice describes a way of making clinical decisions. It rests on three inseparable pillars, and it is where they meet that the approach takes shape.
Research evidence
What the literature establishes, with its level of evidence and its limitations.
Clinical expertise
Reasoning, examination and the experience built up in real situations.
Patient preferences
Their goals, their constraints and what they are prepared to take on.
A common mistake is to reduce EBP to the first pillar alone. A study never says what to do for this particular patient: it reports what happened on average in a given population. The physiotherapist’s job is to transpose that, allowing for what the study did not measure.
Why EBP changes patient management
- It makes decisions traceable. When a technique is chosen, you know why and on what that choice rests. It changes the conversation with the patient, with the referring doctor and, where relevant, with the insurer.
- It guards against drift. Many practices are handed down out of habit. Testing your reflexes against the published evidence lets you drop what no longer has any justification, and keep what does.
- It provides criteria for follow-up. Validated scales and scores let you measure change rather than estimate it. That is the difference between “it feels better” and documented progress.
How to apply EBP in clinic
The approach comes down to four steps, repeated in every clinical situation.
- Frame a precise question
“What should I do about a tendinopathy?” has no answer. “In this 45-year-old patient with a 6-month history of mid-portion Achilles tendinopathy, does a heavy slow resistance protocol improve pain at 12 weeks?” does.
- Look for the existing evidence
Professional guidelines, systematic reviews, then controlled trials. The order matters: there is no point reading ten trials when a recent synthesis exists.
- Appraise what you have found
A statistically significant result is not necessarily clinically relevant. The useful question is the size of the effect and how far it transfers.
- Measure with your own patient
This is where validated tools come in: they turn an impression into a figure tracked over time.
Our view of EBP
Calling yourself “evidence-based” costs nothing. Here is what it commits us to, and where you can hold us to it.
A course starts from a clinical question
Not from a catalogue of techniques. Every pathway sets out the state of the evidence on the question, then works down to reasoning you can apply in clinic the next day.
Our content is sourced and verifiable
102 of our 107 clinical summaries cite at least one PubMed reference, and 67 draw on a Cochrane review. The checking process is public: see our editorial methodology.
We say when something is contested
Disputed evidence is presented as disputed, with its level of evidence. A protocol that cannot realistically be delivered in routine practice is flagged as such rather than copied across.
We keep content up to date
Each piece displays the date it was checked and goes back through the same process whenever the literature or the regulations change.
Who teaches at Physio Learning
A good clinician does not automatically make a good instructor, and good intentions do not make a course evidence-based. Our 36 instructors are recruited on two criteria: their hands-on practice in the subject and their knowledge of the literature that relates to it.
Clinicians still in practice
Every instructor teaches the subject they deal with day to day. That is what makes it possible to say not only what a study shows, but what it means in consultation.
Supported in designing their course
They are trained by our instructor trainer to structure their content, make it teachable and assess it.
Content that is reviewed
Our guides and news pieces go through scientific review. More than 100 published articles carry the approval of our scientific lead.
International names
Ben Cormack on low back pain, Adam Meakins on the shoulder: we also invite instructors whose work is a reference beyond France.
Our pathways by area of practice
For us, a pathway corresponds to an area of practice: a sequence of courses along a single theme, with a progression, rather than isolated modules you have to piece together yourself. These are the same areas as in your training account, those recognised by the Conseil national de l’Ordre, the French regulatory body for physiotherapists.
“Become a sports physiotherapist” pathway
The first complete pathway: from assessing the injury through reconditioning to return to play, with the progression criteria at each stage.
Explore the pathwayThe others are in development, area by area, on the same principle and with the same demands on sources. Here are the areas we currently teach and the instructors who teach them.
Lower limb
With Bryan Littré, Mehmet Gem, Damien Rech, Anthony Baillon.
Upper limb
With Tessadit Aissaoui, Jean Lichtle, Adam Meakins, Dr Burnier Marion, Dr Thomas Apard.
Spine
With Ben Cormack, Théo Ultré, Thibaut Theresy, Pierre-Loup Mercier.
Sports physiotherapy
Sports physiotherapy
With Théo Ultré, Julien Remillieux, Maxence Ponthus, Quentin Bouillard, Adrien Blachere, Marie Reboul, Anthony Baillon.
Pelvic health
Pelvic and perineal rehabilitation
With Delphine Girard, Isabelle Gien, Claire Hirigoyen, Méline Gomont, Caroline Gonon, Julie Cantournet.
Neurology
Neurological rehabilitation
With Bryan Littré, Lucas Meilhou, Miguel Galan.
Pain
Pain management
With Anthony Halimi, Antoine Couly.
Vascular & lymphatic
Vascular and lymphatic rehabilitation
With Bryan Littré, Olivia Ferrand.
Geriatrics
Geriatric rehabilitation
With Bryan Littré, Lucas Meilhou.
Vestibular
Balance and vestibular rehabilitation
With Hugo Bosquin, Elie Tragiannides.
Maxillofacial
Oro-maxillofacial rehabilitation
With Quentin Hindelang.
Set apart, because it is not one of them: professional practice (running a clinic, finances, evaluation of practice) is not an area recognised by the Conseil national de l’Ordre, but it remains a genuine need. We teach it too, with Jérôme Madeira, Martin Millet and Robin Vervaeke.
See all our courses by area of practice, our fully online courses or our DPC courses.
The provider behind these courses
Physio Learning is a continuing education training provider founded in 2021, Qualiopi-certified and registered with the Agence nationale du DPC, the French agency for continuing professional development, under number 99GX. Our courses are aimed first at physiotherapists and, depending on the topic, at doctors, nurses, osteopaths, chiropractors and midwives.
Frequently asked questions
Are EBP and evidence-based medicine the same thing?
The approach is identical. Evidence-based medicine was formalised in medicine, and evidence-based practice is how it carries over to the healthcare professions, physiotherapy included.
Do you need to read English in order to practise EBP?
It helps, since most publications are in English. But professional guidelines and clinical summaries also exist in French, and that is enough of an entry point to get started.
Does EBP mean giving up manual techniques?
No. It asks you to place each technique in relation to the available evidence and to its purpose, not to rule out whole categories of them. Some retain a documented place within active management.
How do you check that your content is evidence-based?
102 of our 107 clinical summaries cite at least one PubMed-indexed reference, and 67 draw on a Cochrane systematic review. Every reference is checked against its source before publication, and the process is set out in our editorial methodology.
Can your EBP courses be funded?
Depending on the course, funding may come through the DPC, the French continuing professional development scheme, through the FIF PL, the funding body for self-employed professionals, or through direct purchase. Eligibility is stated on each course page.
Train with the evidence
E-learning and on-site courses, built on the literature and on clinical reasoning.
See the catalogueTo go further: our editorial methodology, our instructors or the resource library.