Board hears experts and VA staff on dry needling safety, training and scope

Stockton, Calif. — The Physical Therapy Board of California on March 19 heard two outside presentations and public comment on dry needling, the practice of inserting solid filiform needles into soft tissue to treat neuromusculoskeletal conditions. Leslie Adrian, director of professional standards at the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy (FSBPT), and clinicians from the Department of Veterans Affairs described how regulators, educators and large federal health systems train clinicians and track safety. Representatives of California acupuncture organizations told the board they consider dry needling to be acupuncture and said it should be performed only by licensed acupuncturists.

The presentations matter because dry needling raises questions about who may safely perform needling in California, what education or rules should apply, and how access to care would change if the state were to explicitly authorize the practice by physical therapists.

Leslie Adrian, Director of Professional Standards at the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy, told the board that in the United States “dry needling is an established treatment.” She described a multi‑year program of practice analyses and competency studies the federation and outside researchers have run to map what knowledge and skills are needed for safe practice. Adrian said the most recent dry‑needling competency analysis identified 144 work activities, 133 knowledge requirements and 20 skills and abilities relevant to the intervention, and that roughly “88% of what you needed to do dry needling … are already in a PT’s entry level education.” She added, however, that some dry‑needling–specific knowledge must be acquired…