NEXT 2016 offered attendees a wide range of sessions, programs, and special events addressing their clinical, research, and educational interests. Here are a few highlights from the event in Nashville, Tennessee.

One Patient's Remarkable Recovery Is Highlight of NEXT Opener

One of the great things about remarkable physical therapy stories is that they speak for themselves—no exaggeration is needed to increase their impact. Take the story of Nick Balenger, who wowed the audience at the NEXT opening event on June 8—and only partly because he claimed some of his favorite people are physical therapists. Balenger, now a 21-year-old intern with the Department of State in Washington, DC, told the story of his transformative rehabilitation after experiencing a spinal cord injury at age 17.

"My high school baseball team had just won the state championship. I was heading into what promised to be one of the best summers of my life—vacations and baseball and friends," he began. But a diving accident during a family vacation in Hawaii that summer left him in a hospital ICU being told he would never walk again.