The Lingiad
An international gymnastics display, with 7,399 participants from twelve countries, was held in Stockholm in 1939 to commemorate the centenary …
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 role all of my out-patient staff had their own work stations complete with PC. I …
The ways we lose our culture
A few years ago, I was going through some old papers and came across a fragile yellowed newspaper cutting celebrating the refurbished physiotherapy school in Dunedin, New Zealand. The broadsheet report had some lovely pictures of the wooden lecture theatre and a handful of women students in uniform studiously taking …
Marathon Man
The grandson of enslaved parents, Ted Corbitt (1919-2007) was born on a cotton farm near Dunbarton, South Carolina, USA. He recalls a childhood of running for pleasure and for the sheer necessity of getting around. Corbitt ran track events in high school and later at the University of Cincinnati. Surrounded …
Request for help: The Historical Genesis of Manual Therapy
This post comes from Cameron MacDonald, IPHA Exec member, who trained originally in Australia and has been a practicing clinician and researcher in the USA. Cameron is currently working on a Ph.D. provisionally titled: Identifying the basis of manual therapy for the physiotherapy, chiropractic, medical and osteopathic professions: Is there …
Fysiotherapie in perspectief, 50 jaar verleden – heden
Physiotherapy in Perspective, 50 years past – present The Stichting Gescheidenis Fysiotherapie (SGF) (History of Physiotherapy Foundation) of the Netherlands, through 2018 to 2021 published a series of short historical articles in the journal PhysioPraxis. The series was titled “Physiotherapy in Perspective, 50 years past – present”. With great thanks …
Introduction of General Management into the UK NHS – CSP Response
The introduction of General Management into the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom (UK) which commenced in 1983/1984 was one of the most extensive and radical sets of changes to have taken place in the Service during its 73-year history. Arguably, the Griffiths recommendations which brought general management …
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 came from his experience as a neurophysiologist and physician, and the works of Sister Elizabeth …
Three recent books on the history of the physical therapies
In the history of physiotherapy, there’s been precious little work on the cultural history of the physical therapies themselves. But over the last few months, a few pieces of popular science writing have tackled subjects that are close to our hearts. Bill Hayes’ book Sweat: A history of exercise is …
100 Objects of Physiotherapy
Physiotherapy is a profession synonymous with its hands, however there is much equipment we also use. The 100 Objects of Physiotherapy project aims to tell a story of the profession through the tools that it has used throughout its history. Some of the objects we’ve chosen are iconic, others are …
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 physiotherapy treatment. The 1970’s was a politically tumultuous period in Australia. After 23 years of …