Blind and partially sighted physiotherapy in the United Kingdom. A century of development, success and challenge. Will it still belong?

Background:In 2019 the Association of Visually Impaired Chartered Physiotherapists, originally the Association of Blind Certificated Masseurs, celebrated the centenary of its formation and becoming the first ever Specific Interest Group admitted to the Incorporated Society of Trained Masseuses which, later in the 20th century, became the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. These landmarks motivated the author to research for this chronological, descriptive, narrative review of the history of blind physiotherapy and its contribution to physiotherapy in the United Kingdom. Purpose:The early training and practice of massage by blind practitioners, the organizational milestones in mainstream and blind physiotherapy and the inter-relationship between the two is considered. Key developments, challenges, innovations and opportunities throughout the history are reviewed including the impact of World War 1 and contribution of blind physiotherapy to the profession. Conclusion:Significant changes in physiotherapy educational and training arrangements for blind students and changes in physiotherapy practice generally over the last four decades engender serious questions about whether blind physiotherapy will still "belong", despite the increasing aspiration within society toward acceptance of diversity and inclusion. The author challenges the profession about whether it will facilitate blind physiotherapy to continue making its valuable contribution and be included. Will it still "belong?"

2016 JOSPT Awards: Additive Effects and Biological Mechanisms of Interventions Offer Important Insights.

During the American Physical Therapy Association's Combined Sections Meeting in San Antonio, TX in February 2017, JOSPT recognized the authors of the most outstanding research and clinical practice manuscripts published in JOSPT during 2016. The 2016 JOSPT Excellence in Research Award was presented to Carol A. Courtney, Alana D. Steffen, César Fernández-de-las-Peñas, John Kim, and Samuel J. Chmell, MD, for their March 2016 article "Joint Mobilization Enhances Mechanisms of Conditioned Pain Modulation in Individuals With Osteoarthritis of the Knee." The 2016 George J. Davies-James A. Gould Excellence in Clinical Inquiry Award was presented to Seyda Toprak Celenay, Turkan Akbayrak, and Derya Ozer Kaya for their February 2016 article "A Comparison of the Effects of Stabilization Exercises Plus Manual Therapy to Those of Stabilization Exercises Alone in Patients With Nonspecific Mechanical Neck Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial." J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2017;47(4):225-227. doi:10.2519/jospt.2017.0104.

Outline of medical rehabilitation history in Poland and worldwide.

The study is an outline of the historical development of rehabilitation as a new medical discipline in Poland and worldwide. Rehabilitation has developed dynamically in the interwar period. In the US, it was pioneered by Howard Rusk, while in Poland, rehabilitation was introduced by Wiktor Dega. Medical rehabilitation is an interdisciplinary approach and is an integral and irremovable element of treatment at all treatment stages. Of note is the contribution of Wiktor Dega, who has developed and presented the Polish concept of rehabilitation, considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) as worth of being followed. Wiktor Dega believed that rehabilitation should be started possibly early--as soon as in the active disease stage and should provide and maintain good functional results after surgical treatment. The article discusses the contribution of pioneer specialists in rehabilitation in two first rehabilitation centers in Poland, established after World War II in Poznan and Konstancin near Warsaw.

The first historical movements of kinesiology: scientification in the borderline between physical culture and medicine around 1850.

The kinesiology concept is used worldwide and by many different professional groups with scientific aspirations. Yet nobody seems to know much about where it comes from and why it came into existence. This article traces the origins of the concept back to one of Sweden's greatest cultural exports of the nineteenth century - Swedish gymnastics - and the efforts of especially Swedish physiotherapists and physical educators to spread its scientific doctrines throughout the world. Primarily their goal was to convert the representatives of conventional medicine (pharmacology) into a more mechanical mode of understanding and curing illness (physiotherapy). While following in the footsteps of one physiotherapist/physical educator -'the father of kinesiology'- and examining the ideological and historical conditions his so-called 'mission' was ruled by, the social construction of knowledge and science is made visible in a way seldom highlighted in the history of medicine and physical education.

[A short history of anti-rheumatic therapy. I. An introduction on traditional and drug treatments]. / Piccola storia della terapia antireumatica. I. Una premessa sulle terapie tradizionali e farmacologiche.

The origins of anti-rheumatic therapy are very old and mainly related to the use of traditional, sometimes extravagant, treatments, as a part of folk medicine. Spa therapy has long been used for the treatment of rheumatic diseases, as well as, in later times, physical treatments, including electrotherapy. Drug treatment has developed beginning from substances of vegetable origin, such as willow and colchicum extracts. Then it has been spread out through the chemical synthesis of compounds with specific action and therefore more effective, owing to the great development of pharmaceutical industry.

[Physical therapy education in Brazil: reflections on the expansion of teaching and training models]. / Formação em fisioterapia no Brasil: reflexões sobre a expansão do ensino e os modelos de formação.

This article on physical therapy education in Brazil focuses on the expansion of teaching, field of activities, and professional profile. The number of PT courses began multiplying rapidly in 1997, but the Sprocess lacked regulation and entailed both privatization of education and a geographic concentration of courses. This increase in both courses and trained physical therapists did not redound in greater access to PT services. The privatist curative-rehabilitation model that has been adopted is not appropriate to the new epidemiological reality or to current healthcare standards. Recent years have seen initiatives to bring change to physical therapy education and build a new professional profile.

[Nowe Miasto on the Pilica rier--the first XIXth Physiotherapeutic Institution in Polish Kingdom]. / Nowe Miasto nad Pilica --pierwszy dziewietnasto- wieczny Zaklad Przyrodoleczniczy w Królestwie Polskim.

The first nineteenth- century clinic of natural medicine in Poland was founded in 1874 in Nowe Miasto on the Pilica. The founder was Doctor Jan Kapistran Bielinski. The clinic being located by the riverside was fed with 5 springs of cold water and was surrounded by a big park. In the clinic following treatments were provided: hydrotherapy (a hot, cool, steam, salt, gas, aromatic bath, showers) kinesthesiotherapy (treatment by motion, gymnastics), electrotherapy (static electricity, electric bathing), massage and dietary and pharmacological treatment. In Nowe Miasto diseases of the nervous system (spinal neurasthenia, epilepsy, chorea, nervous palsy) were treated as well as of the vascular system (haemorrhage, anaemia, cardiovascular disorder), the respiratory system (bronchitis, pneumoitis, asthma), the digestive system (catarrh and ulceration of stomach and intestines), the sexual system (disorders of menstruation, infertility), urinary tracts (the atonia of bladder, albuminuria, glycosuria) and others (rheumatism, obesity, deafness, convalescence). The clinic had a good reputation and was still being extended. In 1896 it consisted of 26 buildings which housed 150 guest rooms. A very modern medicine department "Marylin" rated the clinic of Nowe Miasto among the top European clinics. The Bielinski's clinic employed following staff: 5 doctors, 2 paramedics, 10 male baths attendants (male nurses who worked in baths), 7 female baths attendants and between ten and twenty support staff. The clinic was open the whole year treating about 400 persons yearly. The patients came from the whole area of Congress Kingdom of Poland as well as from cities abroad: Moscow, St Petersburg, Smolensk, Cracow, London or New York. The majority of patients came from Lódz and Warsaw. The Doctor J.K. Bielinski's clinic was a cultural centre, too. In their spare time the clients of the clinic were offered trips, balls, lectures, stage performances, concerts and painting exhibitions. I. Paderewski, E. Orzeszkowa, W. Reymont, M. Rodziewiczówna, M. Andriolli, W. Chelmonski and others gave their lectures and performances there. The orchestra of Namyslowski and Ciani played for the patients. Doctor Jan Bilelinski worked for the clinic of natural medicine of Nowe Miasto for 42 years. This medical centre existed until 1915. In the course of the war it was entirely damaged and it wasn't reconstructed in the following years.

La Fisioterapia en España durante los siglos XIX y XX hasta la integración en escuelas universitarias de Fisioterapia / Physical therapy in Spain during XIX and XX centuries to make up physical therapy schools

A través de las fuentes documentales y la investigación histórica se refleja cómo en España la realidad vivida por la Fisioterapia durante los siglos XIX y XX discurre por dos vertientes claramente diferenciadas. La del empleo de los agentes físicos con fines terapéuticos (desde el punto de vista conceptual) y la del antecedente del profesional fisioterapeuta institucionalizado. La primera ha estado presente desde el siglo XIX a través de establecimientos, publicaciones y participación de los profesionales en eventos científicos y la segunda como una figura silente, tanto por la falta de identidad de su labor asistencial como la tardía constitución como Fisioterapeuta (AU)