Tag: electrotherapy
Justina Wilson – Twice the Fellow
The following obituary of Justina Wilson was published in the British Medical Journal in 1950. Whilst incorrect in some minor areas and lacking in others, it nevertheless demonstrates her extraordinary physiotherapy and medical achievements, and tells of a life fully lived. The two most significant omissions are her Honorary Fellowship …
Dubious Electrotherapy
The word physiotherapy was used by many different practitioners in the first part of the twentieth century; including French physicians, American electrotherapeutists and later British radiologists as medical radiation was first grouped with electrotherapy. The word physiotherapy was also also used by ‘cultists’ like chiropractors and osteopaths, and untrained laypersons …
Australia’s First Physiotherapist
Physiotherapy emerged from nursing and hospitals in the United Kingdom, and later physical education and the military in the United States. In contrast, physiotherapy began in Australia in private practice. Migrants, predominantly British, brought their skills and knowledge in the fields of massage, therapeutic exercise and/or electrotherapy to their new …
100 Years of Enraf-Nonius
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 in 1925 by Mr AG Hoekstra, the First Dutch X-ray Machine Factory [Eerste Nederlandse Röntgenapparaten …
Greed, Jealousy and the Demise of Medical Physiotherapy
Before its adoption by laymen (or more correctly, laywomen) the word ‘physiotherapy’ was used by the medical profession to describe all of the physical agents, including the X-ray. In the 1920s, radiology became a unique medical specialty, but for a brief period in the nineteen tens and twenties it was …
Historical Electrotherapy Equipment on Display
Avid historians at McGill University, Canada have curated a display of intriguing physiotherapy equipment dating back to the Gaiffe Nerve Stimulator, c1860. Sarah Marshall PT Fellow, Faculty Lecturer, School of Physical & Occupational Therapy, and Rick Fraser, MDCM, Professor, Department of Pathology, Director of the Maude Abbott Medical Museum, and …
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 …
Soviet Electrotherapy
Perhaps no other country in the world has been engaged in the hardware of physiotherapy as massively as the Soviet Union. Since childhood, every Soviet citizen knew about devices for the prevention of all kinds of diseases: They were not only in hospitals and sanatoriums, but also in kindergartens, schools …
A history of Spanish physiotherapy
In 2011the Spanish physiotherapy journal Cuestiones de Fisioterapia ran a special issue on the history of physiotherapy in Spain (link to full pdf of the journal). Very generously, the authors included English translations of many of the abstracts. Thanks to Glenn also for translating a version of the editorial through Google …
Mystery Physiotherapy History
Those of you older than, say, 50, should have no trouble identifying these. So do you know what they are and what we did with them?