Upper Extremity Core-4
Choose a date
Foundational · Half-Day Lab
Core-4 Series Labs
Build a stronger foundation in orthopedic clinical decision-making - a focused, hands-on half-day, built around real regional cases.
For many early-career clinicians, this is the front door to everything Highbar teaches. Pick a region, spend an afternoon doing the actual work, and leave with a framework you'll use immediately.
9.5/10 Participant Satisfaction
4 Contact Hours
$99 Per Lab
APTA-Approved
Three Locations
Register
Single Core-4 lab · 4 contact hours
$99.00
✅ APTA MA approved
🔒 Secure registration
9.5 / 10
Average participant satisfaction across all Core-4 regions
4 Hours
APTA-approved contact hours in a single half-day
$99
Per lab, or $299 for all four regions
3 Locations
Cranston RI, Braintree MA, and Boston MA
What a Core-4 lab actually is
Built around cases, not lectures.
In a single lab you’re handed a regional problem and you work it the way you would in clinic: interpret the findings, choose a starting intervention, reassess the response, and decide the next step.
It’s deliberately not a lecture course, and it’s not trying to cover every condition in a region. It’s designed to make you more organized and more confident in how you think through orthopedic care.
Who it's for
01
PT and PTA students preparing for clinical practice
02
New graduates building confidence with orthopedic patients
03
Early-career clinicians who want a cleaner decision-making framework
Choose your region
Four Regions. One Afternoon Each.
Each region is a distinct starting point — no lab is a prerequisite for another. Dates and locations are listed here so you can decide before you open a booking form.
Lower Extremity Core-4
Choose a date
What you'll gain
Four Hours You'll Use on Monday
A more organized approach to regional orthopedic patient care
A clearer connection between exam findings, treatment choice, and reassessment
More confidence choosing a starting point when the case isn't obvious
Hands-on practice with clinical decision-making and treatment modification
A stronger foundation for future mentorship, residency, COMT, COPTA, or weekend intensives
How the four hours run
Case introduction — a realistic regional presentation, not a slide deck
Live demonstration by the instructor
Guided hands-on practice in pairs
Collaborative reasoning — what would you do next, and why
Included
4 APTA-approved contact hours
Certificate of completion for your CE records
Documentation for employer CE reimbursement
Format
In-person, half-day hands-on lab
Duration
4 contact hours
Price
$99 per lab · $299 for all four
CEU approval
APTA Massachusetts approved
Who Can Attend
PT and PTA students, new graduates, PTs, and PTAs
Locations
Highbar Physical Therapy, Cranston RI · Peak Physical Therapy, Braintree MA · Joint Ventures Physical Therapy, Boston MA
If you already work here
Core-4 Is Free for Highbar Clinicians
Every program in the Education Hub. No exceptions.
Core-4 sits at the start of a pathway that runs all the way to an accredited residency, and every step of it is covered for our own clinicians. If you’re on the team, you register with your employee code and pay nothing — for this lab, the bundle, and everything above it.
Not on the team yet? We’re a teaching practice, and this is what that looks like from the inside.
What a Highbar clinician gets
01
Core-4, free — all four regions, via your employee code
02
24 structured mentorship hours in your first twelve weeks, with a named mentor
03
One-on-one care, every patient, every session — no double-booking
04
A 100% residency board-pass record if you keep going up the pathway
Questions
Before You Register
Do I need to take the regions in order?
No. Each Core-4 lab is a complete, self-contained half-day, and none is a prerequisite for another. Start with the region you treat most, or the date that fits your schedule.
Can students attend, or is this clinicians only?
Both. PT and PTA students are welcome and a meaningful share of every cohort. Core-4 is positioned primarily as clinician training, so expect the room to include new grads and early-career PTs alongside students — which is much of the value.
What CEUs do I earn, and where are they accepted?
Four contact hours per lab, APTA Massachusetts approved.
Is the bundle worth it if I only want two regions?
Two labs individually is $198, so the $299 bundle only makes sense from three regions up. If you’re confident about two, buy those two. If you suspect you’ll want all four eventually, the bundle saves $97.
What should I bring and wear?
Clothing you can move and be assessed in — you’ll be both clinician and patient model during hands-on practice. Bring a notebook. Everything else is provided.
What comes after Core-4?
Most people go one of two ways: Weekend Lab Intensives for two full days on a focused skill, or Region-Focused Certifications for an eight-week deep track in a single region. Further out sits COMT, the advanced pathway Core-4 is a foundation for.
Registration
Pick a Date. That's the Whole Decision.
One afternoon, $99, and a framework you'll use with your next orthopedic patient.
- 4 APTA-approved contact hours in a single half-day
- Case-based and hands-on — not a lecture you sit through
- Taught by clinicians who treat patients in Highbar clinics every week
- Documentation provided for employer CE reimbursement
Register
Single Core-4 lab · 4 contact hours
$99.00
✅ APTA MA approved
🔒 Secure registration
Course Reviews
What Participants Are Saying
5.0
★★★★★
1 course review
★★★★★
This course was very organized, thorough, and streamlined. As a newer clinician, it was very helpful to get such an in depth yet refined reminder of key assessment skills, manual skills, as well as sharpen the reasoning behind the exercises we prescribe our patients. What we do always circles back to "why do we do this," and this course is a great reminder to use your clinical reasoning skills during every session with your patients.
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Spend One Afternoon on It
Four hours, one region, and a way of thinking through orthopedic cases that you'll use the next morning.