New Article Published
The International Physiotherapy History Association is pleased to announce that it has published an editorial in the journal Physiotherapy Theory …
Fair Competition in the Paralympics
The history of disabled people participating in sport is closely allied with modern thoughts and techniques of rehabilitation and recovery from injury. In the 1940’s one of the earliest pioneers of disabled sports, Sir Ludwig Guttmann, observed that the enjoyment and motivation of competition could drive much better levels of …
Pathway to the Modern Olympic Polyclinic
Doctors (and later nurses, physiotherapists, nutritionists, and other biomedical staff) have been present at the Olympic Games from the very beginning but the pathway to modern Olympic polyclinic can only be described as adventurous. In 1896 (Athens) the marathon and water sports got most of the medical attention because they …
Iron Lung fabricated in Lübeck in 1955 Permission to reproduce kindly granted by Deutsches Orthopädisches Geschichts- und Forschungsmuseum.
Locating Objects from Physiotherapy History
There are different ways to learn about (physiotherapy) history as a wide variety of sources answer questions about the past. Historians differentiate between primary sources, i.e. sources that have survived from the past, and secondary sources, i.e. accounts of the past that are written at a later period of time. …
History of Physiotherapy Uniforms in Canada
We know that in our world today, uniforms are ubiquitous and continue to define who we are and where we work. As examples, uniforms in the military stemming back to Napoleon Bonaparte, uniforms of the Church (think about the Pope’s regalia and the red robes of his cardinals), Police and …
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Hijamat- the ancient therapy of cupping
While investigating data for our history project on the development of the profession of physiotherapy in the United Arab Emirates, I was reminded of the practice of cupping (hijamat) and have noted its continuing access as a physical therapy in this part of the world. Every year the Dubai Health …
The first ever Special Issue on the History of Physiotherapy now in print
Nearly three years ago now, we put out a call for people interested in compiling a special issue on the history of physiotherapy for the journal Physiotherapy Theory & Practice, and I’m delighted to say that the papers are now appearing online. There are seven full papers and one Editorial in …
De Arte Gymanstica – The Art of Exercise Prescription
Although books dating back to ancient Chinese, Indian, Arabic, Greek and Roman civilisations contained numerous accounts of physical therapies (Galen reports that Roman emperor Julius Caesar used electric fish to treat neuralgia, for instance), De Arte Gymnastica may be the first book dedicated to the specific prescription of those physical …
Were Ancient Spas Precursors for Today’s Massage and Exercise?
Balnea was the name of the ancient spas that would offer any bath and body services such as massage. This characterized both Greek and Roman spas for a long time. In the imperial times, the Roman balnea changed their name into thermae and there worked different figures such as – …
Giving back to her country: Canadian-Jamaican physio collaboration
By Gillian Woodford, The McGill Reporter; submitted by Sarah C. Marshall (with permission) Three decades after graduating from McGill, Dorothy Thomas Edding helped found Jamaica’s first and only university-based School of Physical Therapy, allowing aspiring physiotherapists to study and work closer to home. Back in the late 1950s a bright …
The process of physiotherapy professionalisation in the UK – Development of autonomy, Part IV
A Watershed in Professional Independence in the UK – The McMillan Report NOTE: Readers may be interested to know that Mr E.L. McMillan (Chairman of the McMillan working Party, in whose name the Report was published) was a patient of the author during the period that the working party was …