Publications & Research

The Alpine Clinic Physician’s are involved in numerous clinical research projects and have had multiple articles published in various medical journals, text books, and encyclopedias.

The new Franconia office will include a formal research lab allowing patients to participate in clinical research studies. This will aide in further treatment of these patients as well as improve care for future generations.

Current Research Projects:

TITLE: Injury Contagion in High School Athletes
PURPOSE: Despite the obvious health benefits of exercise and athletic participation, injuries are a known risk in this active population. Although multiple factors are known to contribute to the risk of injury, a few studies have looked at psychological influences. The hypothesis for this study suggests that there exists an “injury contagion” mechanism that can affect the injury rate on certain teams during a sport season.
HYPOTHESIS: An injury contagion mechanisms at work on some athletic teams leading to decreased performance and possible injury.

HIGH SCHOOL STUDY PARTICIPANTS: For those of you who are enrolled in the high school injury contagion study please use the following link to submit your weekly data- If you have any problems submitting your data or have any questions with regard to this study, please contact Michelle at 603.536.3370 or by emailing: research@thealpineclinic.com
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HighSchoolStudy.

TITLE: The use of a patient instructional manual as a tool for total knee rehabilitation.
PURPOSE: There are many facets to a successful recovery from total knee arthroplasty (TKA). While information from the physician and physical therapist is important, for optimal results the patient should understand and affectively participate in their rehab program. A manual was published that educated, instructs, and answers common questions regarding all aspects of the pre and post-operative course. This manual describes in considerable detail elements of physical and mental rehabilitation before and after surgery. It’s meant as a supplement to information from the patients medical team.
HYPOTHESIS: The use of a detailed, day-by-day instructional manual as a tool for post op TKA patients will improve patient outcomes, safety, and satisfaction and results in decreased overall cost.

TITLE: Augmenting technical skills training through application of video, neuro-feedback and guided imagery training.
PURPOSE: This is a study that Dr. O’Neill is involved with at Duke University.  The idea is to develop “guided imagery” as a training tool and administer the program under the umbrella of the Duke Surgical Education and Activities Laboratory (SEAL). With this tool in place, they believe it will also enhance learning efficiency and decrease anxiety (by self regulating emotions). Ultimately, this program will improve decision making when a trainee encounters unforeseen pathology or experiences complications and will also improve trainee capacity for introspection so as to learn one’s tendencies, limits, weaknesses and strengths which will enhance practice based learning.
HYPOTHESIS: Cognitive interventions training will be a novel training tool for technical skill development and will improve patient safety.

Below you will find some of our recent publications and text links where available: