Do you want to be part of the MasterMind?

Especially for this last day, Monu appeared in a wonderful traditional Bhutanese dress code, with a "Royal Button".  

We focused today on intensive recapitulation of clinical reasoning and treatment procedures, as well as, on some new topics on the hip.

Thank you so much Margot, Monu, Reginald and Antonio for being such nice guests.  I really enjoyed your motivation, inspiration and positive energy!  Those 7 days were very intensive and rewarding.

I look forward to stay in touch!  in the meantime, spread the word!

Quite a busy day today!  We warmed up by doing some more cervical manipulations, before discovering the thoracic spine.

As usual focus on clinical reasoning, functional examination, diagnosis and treatment strategy.

We did several kinds of recapitulation exercises ("what's the clinical image" - "true false questions" - "multiple choice questions") and practical fine tuning.

As you already know, Mr Antonio, presently known as "the package", illustrated again what is important in orthopaedic medicine: the value of 1 positive test is not conclusive ; we need to focus on a cluster of positive and negative tests, i.e. "the package".

Indeed, that's what orthopaedic medicine is about: collecting puzzle pieces in an objective way and reach a relevant diagnosis.

According to the feedback of Margot, Antonio, Monu and Reginald, we can conclude that the mission succeeded.  All of them enjoy very much the logical clinical approach!  They came out of their comfort zone by sharing a nice video testimonial with you (will be published in the next week).

Tomorrow, day 7, the grand final!

We go for more success and satisfaction in orthopaedic medicine through fine tuning our strategies.

But first...a nice dinner in the hotel and then a real Belgian waffle?

We already get to know eachother a bit after 4 days, so that each one of us received a nick name:  Reginald "Tai Chi" or "Ginseng", Antionio "the package", Monu "tabasco" and last but not least, Margot "chocaholic".  What?? Yes, what happens in De Haan, stays in De Haan :)  The origin of those nick names stays our little MasterMind secret...

Today we not only did some lumbar spine clinical reasoning exercises, but we also discovered the cervical world and had fun with some manipulation techniques.  

As usual we enjoyed a nice lunch, but today the weather gods were also on our side, nice relaxed on the terrace.

After finishing some more "brain work", we visited the old town of Bruges (which is also called the "Venice of the north"), bought some super Belgian chocolates and did a boat tour on the romantic canals in the city.  My wife, Luciane, and the wife Reginald, Michelle, joined us for this special trip.

Antonio and Monu received the award of the ultimate "tourist-champion-photographers".

Thanks to all of you for having such a nice time together!

After a nice breakfast in the Grand Hotel Belle Vue, we focused all day on clinical reasoning and treatment options in the lumbar spine.

It was a real "tjakka-chocolate-tabasco" day!  ??

"tjakka" symbolizes the high velocity-low amplitude aspect of different manipulation techniques.

The Belgian "chocolate" seems to be very popular among my guests ; I need to buy extra chocolates to fulfill the demand :)  As we know, chocolate stimumlates the brain function!

And the "tabasco" (a spicy sauce) not only refers to the "spicyness" of a manipulation but also...during lunch, Monu, our guest from Bhutan, discovered the Tabasco sauce, but,...of course he is used to much more spicy food.

Tomorrow, we continue with the spine and after the course we planned a special touristic trip to Bruges, a wonderful medieval city.  And of course, buying extra chocolate is part of the planning :)

This morning we started in an "active" way by performing some manipulations to reduce a carpal subluxation and we analyzed the different options.

We continued our "Cyriax" travel in the wonderful shoulder world and had a closer at different types of arthritis, neuritis, AC- joint lesions, acute bursitis...Then manipulated some loose bodies in the elbow and continued with some palpation techniques.

After lunch we did our first clinical reasoning exercise on the shoulder and this was quite a success!  Super!

The biggest part of the afternoon we spent discovering the fascinating lumbar spine world, which was quite an eye-opener for all of us.

Looking forward to tomorrow!  We will focus entirely on the lumbar spine clinical reasoning, diagnostic and treatment procedures.

We started this morning with the analysis of the shoulder examination, diagnosis and subacromial pain syndromes including differential diagnosis and chronic bursitis.  Intensive practice of functional examination, palpation and treatment techniques.

Then we focused on the most difficult examination technique in orthopaedic medicine, the functional examination of the foot and the ankle.

Time for a nice lunch in restaurant De Witte Doorn.  Followed by diagnosis and treatment techniques of ankle sprains.

After having a closer look at the functional examination of the knee and the treatment techniques for ligamentous lesions, we concluded the day with an "Einstein-visit" ; Did you know Einstein lived in De Haan for some time?  

Tomorrow we continue with the extremities and probably we will also start with the lumbar spine.

5 more days to go!

Today's the day.  Before picking up my guests in the Grand Hotel Belle Vue, first I went to beach again to enjoy the morning sun and the extra energy it gives.

After welcoming Margot, Antonio, Reginald and Monu, I felt an immediate good vibe!

During the morning session we focused on discovering the "Cyriax" clinical reasoning strategy and the characteristics of a good clinical examination.

In the morning break Reginald introduced us to a very special Qi Gong / Chi Kung exercise session. We want more!

Then we deserved a nice lunch and afterwards we put into practice what we learned in the morning, adapted to the Elbow.  We practiced the examination procedure as well as the palpation and treatment procedures for tennis- and golfer elbow.

That was the "warming up", tomorrow we will focus on the exciting shoulder world...

It is always exciting for me to welcome new guests.  Mostly I don't know who I may expect ; I see them for the first time tomorrow morning when I pick them up at the Hotel Belle Vue.  Yesterday I already met Antonio at the airport.

Today 3 more guests arrive at Brussels airport ; the driver will take care of my guests and bring them to the hotel.

At check-in they will receive a welcome package... with some tasty surprise:)

In the meantime I also bought different kinds of fresh tea and introduced Antonio in De Haan.

We are ready to enjoy the most wonderful little town along the Belgian coast line.