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Dr. Malinda Hansen has quite a list of accomplishments throughout her career. She is an acclaimed physician, she was named the 2019 Resident of the Year by the American Academy of Osteopathy, a business entrepreneur, a former women’s basketball player at the University of Minnesota and now she’s an author.

Hansen, an assistant professor with the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine at The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, published a book, “MSK for PCPs: An evidence-based clinical reference text for common musculoskeletal presentations.”

The book was a three-year labor of love that began at her fellowship in sports medicine at the University of Louisville in 2019. Hansen, who just finished a combined Family Medicine and Osteopathic Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine residency at HSC in 2019, had significant exposure to musculoskeletal injuries, treatments and rehab while working with athletes from the University of North Texas.

“In my fellowship at Louisville, one of my co-fellows who went into academic medicine, said one day, ‘I wish there was a book just for exams,’” Hansen said. “Sometimes we don’t remember how to do the knee exam, or the ankle, or wrist, but I said someday there will be a book.”

Hansen would be the one to write it. The book is designed to serve as a clinical reference guide for musculoskeletal exams for primary care physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, physical therapists, medical residents and medical students.

Starting in 2020, she began her outline of the book and then spent nights and weekends finding the evidence to produce the book. Three arduous years later, it was ready to publish.

“I had close to 1,000 references,” Hansen said. “It is 100% evidence-based and the goal was for it to be used by anybody in practice as a clinical reference to all. It’s one of those books where you can flip open to a wrist exam or an ankle exam and it’s easy. All of the information is based on presentations and any practicing physician, PAs, or NPs.”

The book is very specific in that if there was no significant evidence for an exam or treatment, it was not listed. Hansen is the author, but gives opinions throughout the entire book, leaving complete autonomy to the provider.

“I never dreamed in my life that I would be an author and it was never really a goal,” Hansen said. “I wanted to put this resource together to help everyone in this profession. I spent some time on the medical mission trip in West Texas this summer and you realize how little there is for rural physicians, and they just don’t have the resources, but this is something you can have at your fingertips to reference.”

Hansen is a 2015 graduate of the A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (Mesa). Prior to medical school, Hansen played Division I athletics and started a business where she trained athletes. The book is just a small of way giving back to the profession she loves.

“For those who pick it, the goal is to be a clinical reference to all,” Hansen said. “Something like this was never on my radar, but I hope this can be a guide to providers who may have gotten a little rusty in their musculoskeletal exams and management.”

MSK for PCPs: An evidence-based clinical reference text for common musculoskeletal presentations.

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