A recent University of South Florida (USF) School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences (SPT&RS) Alumni was accepted to the Kaiser Permanente Spine Fellowship. Julian La, PT, DPT a 2017 graduate of the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at USF accepted the fellowship. Dr. La  recently completed an Orthopedic Residency program with Kaiser Permanente at West Los Angeles Medical Center. Dr. La is looking forward to advancing his skills in clinical reasoning, examination, manual therapy, movement science and pain sciences. The fellowship offers opportunities to collaborate with expert clinicians to achieve this such as Clare Frank, Lorimer Mosely, Denis Dempsey, Chris Powers, and Shirley Sahrmann.

His future plans after completing the spine fellowship is to become a clinical mentor and active leader for future students and residents at Kaiser Permanente. He has always been passionate about mentoring students in the past and enjoy the reward of seeing the growth within that individual. He is also considering continuing to pursue his career in chronic pain management, as these are the most challenging yet rewarding patients he has encountered.

His favorite memory at USF was late night studying with classmates. It was stressful, but they ended up making it fun. When asked what advice he would give future DPT students he responded “I highly recommend continuing onto a residency after graduating PT school. The real learning starts during the 1st year when you are practicing.  Mentorship is the most valuable aspect in a residency/fellowship as it assists your growth and further develops your clinical decision-making, skills, and patient-client interaction.”

Congratulation to Dr. La on his accomplishments, and we look forward to seeing where his future takes him.

To learn more about the Kaiser Permanente Spine Fellowship visit: https://scal-pt-residencyfellowship.kaiserpermanente.org/?page_id=137.