What happens when one of the nation’s fastest-growing states does not have enough physical therapists?
For Daryl Lawson, PT, MPT, D.Sc., professor and director of the Doctorate of Physical Therapy Program at the Â鶹´«Ã½AV School of Public Health, that question is at the center of his work. Nevada ranks third from the bottom in physical therapists per 100,000 residents, and that gap grows considerably wider outside the Reno-Sparks and Las Vegas metro areas.
In the latest episode of Brewing Better Health, Lawson joins Dean Muge Akpinar-Elci, M.D., MPH, over a cup of Turkish coffee to talk about pain, prevention, access to care and what it means to treat a patient as a whole person in the context of the community they live in.
Sitting down with Akpinar-Elci in her kitchen, Lawson brought the perspective of both a clinician and a researcher. He is board certified in orthopedics and wound management, with decades of experience treating patients and a growing focus on digital health tools that extend care beyond the clinic walls. What drew him to public health, he said, is the recognition that what happens in a clinical session is only part of the picture.
"If you really look and listen, it could be more of a public health issue," Lawson said. "Maybe transportation is the reason they can't get there. Maybe it's their housing, maybe it's their diet or food. There could be so many other things why this person that walks into your clinic is not getting better."
That broader view of health is also shaping the program Lawson is building at Nevada. Akpinar-Elci noted that connection is central to public health, which often looks beyond individual care to ask how prevention, access and community conditions shape health outcomes.
"That is public health in a nutshell to me. It reaches out. What gives me hope is being with the School of Public Health." – Daryl Lawson
The new Doctorate of Physical Therapy Program, the first of its kind in Northern Nevada, is housed within the School of Public Health intentionally. The program is designed to help students think at the population level, not just the individual one.
"Here we look broader," Lawson said, "which is really exciting, so we can make an impact on our state."
For Lawson, making an impact also means preparing graduates who understand Nevada’s needs and want to stay. He is focused on recruiting students from Northern Nevada communities and preparing them to serve those same communities after graduation, including in rural areas where access to care is most limited. The program’s curriculum includes a focus on primary care physical therapy, equipping graduates to care for a wide range of patients.
That same focus on access carries into Lawson’s research. For more than a decade, he has been developing sensor-based technology to monitor and treat patients with diabetic foot ulcers from home. For some patients, transportation or the cost of getting to frequent appointments can make consistent care difficult.
The technology allows patients to place a sensor insole in their shoe and receive daily electrical stimulation treatment that supports blood flow, while clinicians monitor their progress remotely. It is the kind of hybrid, preventive approach Lawson wants his students to carry into their careers.
The conversation also returned to the importance of seeing the whole person, especially when patients are living with pain. One of the most persistent misconceptions in physical therapy, Lawson said, is the idea that patients who do not improve are simply not trying hard enough. Pain rarely exists in isolation. It can be shaped by mental health, housing conditions, diet, smoking, comorbidities and other factors that a clinical appointment alone cannot address.
"It's a misconception if you don't recognize all those types of things and, on a bigger scale, try to help with those things," Lawson said.
For listeners navigating their own pain, Lawson’s message was practical and measured: pain can be a signal that something is wrong, and understanding where it comes from is the first step. From there, he said, the goal is often learning how to manage pain in a way that supports a good quality of life.
What gives Lawson hope for the future of public health is the same thing that brought him back to Reno: connection across disciplines.
"That is public health in a nutshell to me," he said. "It reaches out. In hospitals and clinics, we all live in silos. Even in universities we live in silos. What gives me hope is being with the School of Public Health."
Brewing Better Health is a conversation series from the Â鶹´«Ã½AV School of Public Health that brings public health leaders and practitioners together to explore how the field shows up in everyday life and in the communities it serves.
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