On the 8th September 1951, delegates representing seventeen national physiotherapy associations met in Copenhagen, Denmark to establish the World Confederation for Physical Therapy (WCPT); now World Physiotherapy. Seventy-five years later it represents more than 600,000 physiotherapists through 129 member organisations, …
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of World Physiotherapy (formerly the World Confederation for Physical Therapy – WCPT) on 8 September 2026, we’ve created a special 75-question challenge to put your knowledge of the profession to the test. Their are 5 …
On the 1st of January 1973, Jean Blair was appointed Associate Professor by the Council of the University of the Witwatersrand. She was awarded the honour, in the words of the Vice-Chancellor, “..on the grounds of her long and meritorious …
Vibration has been, and is still, used widely across physiotherapy. The speed of the vibration offers differing therapeutic benefits that can be targeted toward specific health conditions. Slow rhythmical rocking, via horseback (hippotherapy) or being sat upon a top loading …
Medicine has often been framed as the “ideal” profession, leading other health fields to emulate it when pursuing their own professionalisation. American medicine’s current education system came about during the early-twentieth century, as part of …
In 1912, Dr John Shields Fairbairn, a leading consultant obstetrician at St Thomas Maternity Hospital, London, commenced a program to revolutionise the medical approach to child delivery. He aimed to replace the 19th century medical …
Enraf-Nonius is a Dutch medical equipment manufacturer celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. For many physiotherapists Enraf-Nonius have provided the equipment used across entire careers, and so they have grown in parallel with the profession. Founded …
Modern medical research dictates that studies with a potential for bias be identified and excluded from a systematic review. Historical research approaches dictate the opposite. The more bias that is present in a study, the …
In 1927 ‘The News’ newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia ran a weekly series of articles on their Woman’s page exploring suitable careers for girls; “a problem which at times confronts the parents of daughters”. The …
The Executive Committee met on three occasions by Zoom teleconference in the second half of 2024. The Executive Committee membership consisted of Glenn Ruscoe, Chair (Australia) Sarah Marshall (Canada) – leave of absence Sandra Schiller …
Studying physiotherapy was as beautiful as it was difficult. Every physiotherapist was at some point a student; a period of their lives full of unique but familiar experiences. We asked physiotherapists from around the world …
Thanks to the efforts of the Dutch History of Physiotherapy Foundation (Stichting Gescheidenis Fysiotherapie – SGF) all Royal Dutch Society for Physiotherapy (Koninklijk Nederlands Genootschap voor Fysiotherapie) journals are now digitally accessible. Articles beginning from …
The International Physiotherapy History Association is pleased to announce that it has published an editorial in the journal Physiotherapy Theory and Practice. This editorial, titled “Physiotherapy: The history behind the word”, explores how the current …
