The Physio Matters Podcast

In this episode of Chewing It Over, Jack speaks with Andrew Walton, offering what Andrew describes as “a view from the top” of healthcare leadership and professional practice .
The conversation explores Andrew’s career journey and the lessons that come from working across clinical practice, leadership roles, and wider healthcare systems. Rather than focusing purely on clinical skills, Andrew highlights the importance of systems thinking, collaboration, and understanding the broader context in which healthcare operates.
A key theme of the discussion is the gap that can exist between frontline clinicians and decision-making structures. Andrew reflects on how leaders must balance competing pressures: workforce constraints, service demands, financial limitations, and patient outcomes. From this perspective, clinical excellence alone is not enough — meaningful change requires clinicians to engage with the organisational and strategic dimensions of healthcare.
Jack and Andrew also discuss how clinicians can develop leadership capabilities throughout their careers. Leadership is not framed as a job title but as a mindset and responsibility, where clinicians contribute to improving services, supporting colleagues, and advocating for better patient care.
Importantly, Andrew emphasises that leadership roles can feel distant or inaccessible to many clinicians. However, understanding how decisions are made — and how clinicians can influence them — helps bridge the gap between policy, management, and clinical practice.
Ultimately, the episode offers a reflective look at the profession from a strategic vantage point, encouraging clinicians to think beyond individual patient encounters and consider their wider role in shaping healthcare systems.

In this episode of Chewing It Over, Jack is joined by Hannah Poulton to explore a topic that clinicians encounter frequently but often feel underprepared to manage: scars and their rehabilitation .
The conversation examines the wide-ranging impact that scars can have on patients. While scars are often thought of as purely cosmetic issues, Hannah explains that they can influence pain, movement, tissue sensitivity, and psychological wellbeing. Depending on their depth, location, and the tissue layers involved, scars may contribute to stiffness, restricted movement, or altered sensory responses.
Hannah discusses how clinicians should approach scar management from a broader perspective rather than focusing solely on appearance. Scar assessment involves understanding tissue behaviour, mobility, and sensitivity as well as recognising the emotional and psychological significance scars can hold for patients.
The discussion also highlights common misconceptions around scar treatment. While many manual techniques and topical approaches are promoted in practice, the evidence base remains mixed, meaning clinicians must combine available research with clinical reasoning and patient goals.
Importantly, Hannah emphasises the value of early education and patient empowerment. Helping patients understand how scars mature, adapt, and respond to loading can reduce fear and improve engagement with rehabilitation.
Ultimately, this episode reframes scars not simply as marks on the skin, but as dynamic biological structures that interact with movement, sensation, and patient experience. With thoughtful assessment and a patient-centred approach, clinicians can play a meaningful role in improving both function and confidence for people living with scars.

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Which dynamometer should you buy? The answer is… it depends.
In this episode of Chewing It Over, Jack speaks with Dr Claire Minshull about the rapidly growing world of force measurement tech in rehab and MSK practice .
We discuss:
• Why “just buy the one your mate has” is risky
• Sampling frequency (Hz) — and why it matters for RFD
• Load capacity vs intended use
• Calibration, data fidelity & measurement error
• Why handheld dynamometry increases variability
• External fixation and reducing clinician error
• The myth of chasing normative values
• Building your own in-clinic strength database
Claire also introduces WhichDynamometer.com — a free, side-by-side comparison tool built after over a year of collecting technical specifications directly from manufacturers.
This episode is essential listening for:
✔️ Physiotherapists
✔️ Sports rehab clinicians
✔️ S&C coaches
✔️ Clinic owners making capital purchases
✔️ Anyone wanting to use objective data properly
Force measurement isn’t a magic bullet — but used well, it can enhance decision-making, patient confidence, and rehabilitation progression.
💬 Do you use dynamometry in your clinic?
What matters most to you — price, portability, sampling frequency, or something else?
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For all Claire's info - getbacktosport.com

In this episode of Chewing It Over, Jack is joined by Andy Thomas, founder of Physiquip and host of the Real Health podcast, to discuss his new book Real Growth and the thinking behind it. Rather than presenting another abstract business or personal development manual, Andy explains that Real Growth is built from real conversations, real careers, and real lived experience, drawn from more than 200 long-form podcast interviews across sport, healthcare, and business .
The discussion explores why “real” growth matters. Andy contrasts authentic development with surface-level metrics and performative success, arguing that growth is rooted in values such as authenticity, positivity, humility, enjoyment, and reflection. The book weaves together insights from elite sport practitioners, clinicians, business leaders, and entrepreneurs, showing how lessons learned in one domain often translate powerfully into others.
Andy describes the challenge of turning hundreds of conversations into a coherent structure, ultimately creating 30 short, accessible chapters grouped into themes. Each chapter ends with reflective questions designed to help readers apply insights to their own lives and work. The format mirrors how Andy himself learns: practical, digestible, and easy to dip into.
The conversation also links Real Growth to Andy’s wider work with Physiquip. He explains his belief that profitability, trust, and purpose are not opposites, but essential ingredients for sustainable healthcare businesses. Technology, he argues, is not about novelty, but about fit—supporting a clinic’s vision rather than defining it.
Overall, this episode is a thoughtful reflection on growth as a human process: built through curiosity, connection, optimism, and doing meaningful work well over time.

In this episode of Chewing It Over, Jack is joined by Heather Mclellan, physiotherapist, occupational health specialist, and founder of The Return to Work Mentor, to explore a largely invisible gap in healthcare: what happens when people—especially small business owners and the self-employed—become ill or injured and have no access to occupational health support.
Heather explains that while large organisations often have structured return-to-work systems, most UK workers are employed by micro-businesses with fewer than ten staff, where occupational health simply doesn’t exist. As a result, people are left to “chance it”: either staying off work longer than necessary due to fear and uncertainty, or returning too early without a plan, risking relapse or failure.
The conversation becomes deeply personal as Heather shares her own experience of suffering a rare stroke caused by an underlying blood cancer. Despite decades of expertise in vocational rehabilitation, she found herself navigating illness, identity, and work with virtually no formal support. Even income protection policies failed her—not because she lacked cover, but because she hadn’t “played the game” correctly by formally stopping work and obtaining a sick note.
Together, Jack and Heather unpack the emotional, cognitive, and financial strain of trying to hold a business together while managing a life-changing diagnosis. They discuss how performance, identity, and responsibility often mask distress, and why pathway-based or insurance-led systems routinely fail people at their most vulnerable.
Heather introduces her “before, during, after” framework for health crises, which underpins The Return to Work Mentor. The goal is simple but powerful: to give people calm, practical guidance—direct to the individual—so they’re not left alone to navigate one of the hardest transitions of their working lives.