Units of the PSP Certification Program™
Unit 1 – Fundamentals of Primary Spine Care
Unit 2 – The Lumbar Spine
Unit 3 – The Cervical Spine
Unit 4 – Clinical Management and Final Proficiency Exam
Prospective Students:
Or, scan below:
Course Participants:
Participants who are accepted into and registered for the PSP Program can access the course using the link below.
Registration Information
2023 Cohort:
Live courses for this cohort will be held on the following dates.
Three (3) weekend sessions will be offered in a virtual/online format and one (1) weekend session will be live/in-person on the Univeristy of Pittsburgh's campus.
- Course One: Fundamentals of Primary Spine Care
- April 14-16, 2023
- Virtual/Online Format
- Course Two: Applied PSP Management Principles: The Lumbar Spine
- June 23-25, 2023
- Virtual/Online Format
- Course Three: Applied PSP Management Principles: The Cervical Spine
- September 22-24, 2023
- Virtual/Online Format
- Course Four: PSP Clinical Management Principles: Case Analysis, Review, and Certification
- December 1-3, 2023
- Live/In-Person Format
Each workshop will be three days in length of the following schedule:
- Friday: 5-9pm Eastern
- Saturday: 8am-5:30pm Eastern
- Sunday: 8am-12pm Eastern
Applications for the PSP Program are currently being accepted.
Registration for the 2023 PSP Cohort will beginning in August of 2022.
Secure your spot for 2023!
2022 Cohort:
Live courses for this cohort are held on the following dates.
Three (3) weekend sessions will be offered in a virtual/online format and one (1) weekend session will be live/in-person on the Univeristy of Pittsburgh's campus.
- Course One: Fundamentals of Primary Spine Care
- April 8-10, 2022
- Course Two: Applied PSP Management Principles: The Lumbar Spine
- June 24-26, 2022
- Course Three: Applied PSP Management Principles: The Cervical Spine
- September 23-25, 2022
- Course Four: PSP Clinical Management Principles: Case Analysis, Review, and Certification
- December 2-4, 2022
- Friday: 5-9pm Eastern
- Saturday: 8am-5:30pm Eastern
- Sunday: 8am-12pm Eastern
Each workshop will be three days in length of the following schedule:
Registration Completion and Payment
The cost of the PSP Certifcation Program is $3,800.00. This can be paid at one time, or with a payment plan of mulitiple installments. Initial payment is due following your acceptance to the course.
Registration includes:
- Access to the Program’s Online Educational Modules
- Final Live Practical Competency Examination after satisfying all requirements and passing all tests of all four units of the Program
- University of Pittsburgh Certification as a Primary Spine Practitioner (PSP) after satisfactory completion of the Final Live Competency Examination
Note: All program enrollees must view the on-line modules and pass each associated quiz PRIOR to attending the live workshop. Each unit of the PSP Program must be taken in sequential order. Life-changing events that preclude attendance at any one of the PSP Live Workshops for any enrollee will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis for remedy.
PSP Prerequisites
Required:
- Graduate of an accredited Physical Therapy or Chiropractic program
- Active professional license in good standing
- 3,000 hours of clinical experience (with substantial exposure to Spinal Related Disorders)
Recommended:
- Professional Education Experiences or Post-graduate Certification or Continuing Education Experiences featuring the following concepts:
- Biopsychosocial Model; Differential Diagnosis including: Red Flag Screening; Yellow Flag Screening
- Directional Preference Exercise; Response to Movement; Centralization/Peripheralization; Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy (MDT Principles)
- Manual Therapy including Graded Mobilization, Thrust Mobilization, and Soft Tissue Mobilization; Spinal Manipulative Therapy
- Therapeutic Exercise: including Impaired Motor Control Exercise; Spinal Stabilization; Strengthening and Endurance Exercise
- Clinical Residency Training
All candidates are required to submit a Cover Letter and Curriculum Vitae demonstrating credentials and qualifications that meet or exceed the above Admission Requirements and stating their reason as to why they desire to attend the PSP Certification Program™.
Note: If a candidate does not meet the prerequisite admission requirements, they can submit evidence of the equivalent of the above criteria subject to approval by our PSP Advisory Panel through a portfolio review process.
- The candidate should continue with the online registration process
- The candidate should provide a brief explanation in the required Cover Letter that provides evidence of equivalent training or experience that meets or exceeds the PSP prerequisite admission requirements. The candidate’s CV should also provide evidence of equivalent training.
- For those candidates that do not meet the published Admission Requirements, their Cover Letter and CV will be submitted to the PSP Advisory Panel for consideration. A phone or personal interview may be requested by the Panel. Disposition will be provided within four weeks of the submittal date.
Recommended Readings
Clinical Reasoning in Spine Pain, Volumes I and II, by Donald R. Murphy, DC, FRCC
Participants are responsible for obtaining their own texts.
Volume I:
Primary Management of Low Back Disorders Using The CRISP Protocols
Murphy, Donald R.
Volume II:
Primary Management of Cervical Disorders Using The CRISP Protocols
Murphy, Donald R.
The documents below are available for download.
Murphy D, Justice B, Paskowski I, Perle S, Schneider M
Treatment-Based Classificiation System for Low Back Pain: Revision and Update
Alrwaily M, Timko M, Schneider M, Stevans J, Bise C, Hariharan K, et al.
Additional Reading
- Christensen CM, Grossman JH, Hwang J. The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2009.
- Dower C, Moore J, Langelier M. It Is Time To Resctructure Health Professions Scope-Of-Practice Regulations To Remove Barriers To Care. Health affairs. 2013 Nov;32(11):1971-6.
- Hartvigsen J, Foster NE, Croft PR. We need to rethink front line care for back pain. Bmj. 2011;342:d3260.
- Porter ME. A Strategy for Health Care Reform--Toward a Value-Based System. The New England journal of medicine. 2009 Jul 9;361(2):109-12
- Porter ME, Lee TH. The Strategy That Will Fix Health Care. Harvard Bus Rev. 2013;Oct:1-19.
- Porter ME, Teisberg EO. Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-Based Competition on Results. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press; 2006.
Cancellations
All cancellations must be made in writing either by post or e-mail.
For cancellations sent before 1st of the month of the month preceding the PSP Unit Live Workshop, tuition will be refunded minus a $75.00 administrative fee; cancellations sent after 1st of the month, but before 31st of the month preceding the weekend workshop, tuition will be refunded minus a $125.00 administrative fee; No tuition will be refunded for requests sent after 31st of the month preceding the weekend workshop.
Consent to Use Photographic Image
By attending the University of Pittsburgh Primary Spine Practitioner (PSP) Certification Program™, attendees give the University of Pittsburgh permission to use the attendee's image or voice in photographs, video recordings, electronic reproductions, social networking, and audio recordings both now and in the future.
Updated | 7.12.2022