Category: Research
Guy’s Hospital School of Physiotherapy, London
An Overview of the Origins and History 1888 to1992 During the early to mid-1970s I was privileged to work as a member of the physiotherapy staff at Guy’s Hospital London. Guy’s was founded in 1726 …
A Profession for Middle Class Women
In 1986 Stephanie Short, a physiotherapist and sociologist, published an article in the Australian Journal of Physiotherapy titled, “Physiotherapy – A feminine profession”. Short argued that the female-dominated professions in health care are not as …
The State Institute for Physiotherapy and Massage in Dresden, Germany
(Translated by Sandra Schiller) Physiotherapy as a profession has different roots throughout Europe. Sweden pioneered medical gymnastics at the beginning of the 19th century. The initiator was Pehr Henrik Ling, a Swedish poet with a …
Greed, Jealousy and the Demise of Medical Physiotherapy
Before its adoption by laymen (or more correctly, laywomen) the word ‘physiotherapy’ was used by the medical profession to describe all of the physical agents, including the X-ray. In the 1920s, radiology became a unique …
The History of Light Therapy
Historically, light treatment has roots in ancient Egypt, India, and Greece, as “heliotherapy” (natural sunlight) for the treatment of skin diseases. Modern phototherapy (artificial light) has its origins in the latter part of the 19th …
The Glass Room
Physiotherapy gymnasiums are rarely located within architectural splendour but for a short period in communist Czechoslovakia, a hospital physiotherapy department was located in one of the great buildings of European modernism. UNESCO World Heritage Listed …
Physiotherapy is Handling: Then and Now
The seminal paper “Physiotherapy is Handling” was presented by Joyce Williams at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) Founders’ Lecture at the CSP Annual Congress in 1985 and was reproduced in the Physiotherapy Journal in …
The Mother of #GlobalPT
The hashtag #GlobalPT emerged on the social media network Twitter at the World Confederation of Physical Therapy (now World Physiotherapy) Congress in Capetown, South Africa in 2017. It worked to connect digital commentary and build …
The Unique Case of Doctors becoming Physiotherapists
The health workforce is hierarchical and movement across professions is almost always upwards as individuals seek higher reward, recompense and status. Only rarely is there is movement downward. This story tells of a unique occurrence …
From Aide to Diagnostician: An American Physical Therapy Transformation
How current physical therapists became diagnosticians illuminates the trajectory of the profession and the value we offer. My recent exploration into this American story was recently published as an historical essay in Physical Therapy & …