The Executive Committee met on three occasions by Zoom teleconference in the first half of 2026. The current Executive Committee membership consists of
- Glenn Ruscoe, Chair (Australia)
- Sandra Schiller (Germany)
- Magda Fourie (South Africa)
- Cameron MacDonald (USA)
- Wajida Perveen (Pakistan)
- Snjezana Schuster (Croatia)
- Ximena Suárez Bonilla (Mexico/Spain)
- Esther-Mary D’Arcy (Ireland)
- Ken Miller (USA)
Fifteen articles exploring the history of the profession were published on our website. As per our intention to give greater weight to articles about females, three of the biographies were specifically of women – Muriel Neilson and Margaret Palmer of the United Kingdom, and Eliza McCauley of Australia. We also published an article about the harrowing experiences of two young, female Australian physiotherapists during the fall of Singapore in the Second World War.
Four articles on massage, and three on the Ling-related people and events were published. The Netherlands’ Foundation for Physiotherapy History provided three articles and individual association members in the USA provided two articles. We invite relevant articles from any interested person.
As per our work plan, the committee reviewed and updated the profession resource links on our website.
The committee completed its work on two historical projects to celebrate the 75th anniversary of World Physiotherapy in 2026. Both are ready to be launched leading up to and on the anniversary date of 8th September. As IPHA Chair, I recorded a history presentation video for World Physiotherapy, who commenced their celebrations with founding members in Canada in late May. We also provided four reviewers from the Executive for World Physiotherapy’s 75 Noteworthy Physiotherapists project.
We started work for the 250th birthday celebrations of Pehr Henrik Ling later this year. Currently we are collecting short articles on Ling’s legacy from invited physiotherapy historians across the globe.
Our work continues on the historical leadership of the profession in Latin America, to be timed with the next World Physiotherapy Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2027. And finally, for 2027 we are starting to think about some exciting ideas with images.
