Category: Editorial
When Giants Collide: The Birth of Manipulative Physiotherapy
The following article is based on an article titled “History of IFOMT” by David W Lamb, Freddy M Kaltenborn and Stanley V Paris. The three authors were pioneering leaders in their field and drivers of …
The Bonesetters of Brittany
In the Brittany (Western France) of yesteryear, there was a dearth of medical doctors practicing in the rural areas and when one could be found, his professional services were rarely affordable. Traditional healing treatments and …
Forty Years of Dutch Manual Therapy
Introduction The 40th anniversary of the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Manuele Therapie (NVMT) in 2021 was a trigger for this historical review by Huub Vossen and Anton de Wijer. Their writings were translated to English via …
World Cup Physio Goes Down
The football World Cup is the most celebrated sporting event on the planet, with the 2018 iteration totaling 3.57 billion combined spectators. In its 92-year history there have been many terrific stories, but for one …
Sister Kenny
On the eve of the 70th anniversary of her passing we will explore the life of this Australian ‘nurse’ whose work with polio victims opened the modern-day era of rehabilitation and physiotherapy. Whilst working in …
Guidelines for Computerised Information Systems in the UK NHS Physiotherapy Services: An Historical Perspective
Background This paper (below) was published in the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy Journal “Physiotherapy” in April 1994. At that time, there were very few computerised information systems specifically designed for physiotherapy services and Allied Health …
Why Information Systems for Physiotherapy? – An Historical Perspective
I think the service I led and managed was the first in the United Kingdom to make Personal Computer (PC) access fully available to all physiotherapy staff and by the time I retired from that …
PNF in Short
Initially termed ‘proprioceptive facilitation’ by Dr Herman Kabat in the early 1940’s, physical therapist Dorothy Voss added the word ‘neuromuscular’ to give us the now familiar Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF). Kabat’s conceptual framework for PNF …
Time for Change
Fifty years ago the Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) elected its first physiotherapist President. Previously the APA had always been presided over by a medical practitioner; which seemed perfectly natural when medical referrals were required for …
The First 50 Years of the Australian College of Physiotherapy
The Australian College of Physiotherapists was established in August 1971, although the idea of a College was first suggested in 1955. The original vision was to develop a means of encouraging and recognising scholarly and …