
Interview with Patricia Grohne
Last week I spoke with Patricia Grohne about some of the work she has been doing with her colleagues to record and celebrate the history of physiotherapy in British Colombia, Canada. As well as this …
Remembering Brian Davey
We heard last week of the recent death of Brian Davey. I had the good fortune to interview Brian as part of the centenary celebrations for New Zealand physiotherapists in 2013, and it was only …
Interview with Joan McMeeken
Last week I spoke with Professor Joan McMeeken about her recent book Science in Our Hands: Physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne, 1895–2010. Joan is the Foundation Professor and was Foundation Head of the School of …
A brief history of Brazil’s Federal Council of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy (English & Portuguese)
The aspiration in forming the Council was to create a federal entity that would act as ethical and social regulator of the profession, whose advent resulted from the work of the Brazilian Association of Physical …
Physiotherapy history as a tool to identify the ‘soul’ of the profession
“Critique needs friction or a kind of dialogue. Existing reality must be confronted with strangeness and the historically different can assume the function of this counterpart, meaning present and past must continuously be set in relation to …
New book: The Oxford Handbook of Disability History
The Oxford Handbook of Disability History (link) Michael Rembis, Catherine J. Kudlick, and Kim Nielsen, eds. Table of contents Part I. CONCEPTS AND QUESTIONS 1. The Perils and Promises of Disability Biography – Kim E. Nielsen …
The Massage Robot (c.1931)
“Most of us know how valuable massage is for our limbs but most of us also know what a tiring job it is – too! “Here’s a novel pneumatic massage machine, that envelops the patient …

Become a history.physio contributing author
With the new history.physio website, we’re looking to have contributions from across the whole physiotherapy community. Each month we’d like to publish a short piece from 8 to 10 IPHA members who would be our …
