The Lingiad
An international gymnastics display, with 7,399 participants from twelve countries, was held in Stockholm in 1939 to commemorate the centenary …
Mobilising a Profession: Geoffrey Maitland
…Maitland’s emphasis on very careful and comprehensive examination leading to the precise application of treatment by movement and followed in turn by the assessment of the effects of that movement on the patient, form the basis for the modern clinical approach. This is probably as close to the scientific method …
History of Physiotherapy Education in South Africa – the SMU & UKZN story
Physiotherapy Department at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU) (Information provided by the current HOD, Prof Douglas Maleka, class of 1976 and all MEDUNSA/UL/SMU graduates, associates and friends, especially Mrs Melody Nguna (nee Mji) and Ms Shoeshoe Zulu (nee Mopeli)) Physiotherapy was one of the professions reserved exclusively for the …
Never the “Twain: shall met, or shall they?
Samuel Longhorne Clemens, or more famously known as Mark Twain, has a very interesting contribution to the historical development of manual therapy in the United States. A delicious irony exists in that his pen name (Mark Twain), refers to the point on a river chart where the troubled waters meet …
Part of the audience of the first general meeting of the World Confederation for Physical Therapists held in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1951.
A New World of Physiotherapy
Nearly 70 years after its inauguration, the World Confederation for Physical Therapists (WCPT) transformed into World Physiotherapy on 30 June 2020 with the launch of their new website at www.world.physio. The idea of creating an international body began in 1948 when Physical Therapists from a number of countries met to discuss …
COVID 19 – Rehabilitation in the context of physio history
COVID 19 is here with us now, but today’s news will hopefully become a historical narrative as we move forward and look back on this unprecedented global health and economic crisis. The historical context is important as past events considered together, especially events of a particular period, country, or subject, …
B
Brasil: Os primeiros anos da profissão
“O que existiu primeiro foi o CAOS e depois GAIA (Terra)” – Hesíodo: Teogonia – Origem A palavra grega CAOS é a mais aproximada da palavra “Vácuo”, um vazio ou nada no início de tudo. Assim foi com a Fisioterapia no Brasil até os anos 1950, uma Fisioterapia sem Fisioterapeutas. Os …
A Royal Charter: 100 years old but still relevant
As the Canadian Physiotherapy Association celebrates its centenary year, 2020 also marks an important historical milestone for the Charted Society of Physiotherapy in the UK – 100 years since it received a Royal Charter. On June 11th19201, his Majesty, King George V, granted the Incorporated Society of Trained Masseuses and …
Hospital care 100 years ago
A recent piece of photojournalism by Gabriel H. Sanchez in Buzzfeed (link) shows what hospital care was like in New York 100 years ago. The images are timely because they remind us about the things that have changed (nurses in pillbox hats, horse-drawn carriages, tennis courts for the staff), and …
The process of physiotherapy professionalisation in the UK – Development of autonomy, Part II
Introduction¹ My previous contribution to IPHA articles (March 2020) presented an overview of the relationship between the medical profession and physiotherapy following the introduction of the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK exemplified through the Cope Report. This contribution continues the story via an overview of the development of …
Canadians Inspired by History
Worldwide, due in part to the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, the history of our profession is becoming a hot topic. We can draw inspiration from the beginnings of our profession, and model after early successes in answering the call for hard-working independent-minded health professionals. The beginnings of physiotherapy …