Physical Rehabilitation: A Historical Look

Medicine aims toward restoring, maintaining, and improving human health, and engineering aims toward restoring, maintaining and improving human wellness. Both disciplines apply knowledge from science and technology at large to accomplish such objectives. Bioengineering, also called biomedical engineering, is defined as the application of engineering principles and techniques to problems in medicine and biology (always with restoration, maintenance, and improvement in mind), which now also includes veterinary medicine, and the environment in general.

[The Danish history of rehabilitation - and what is the doctor's role in the future?]

Not least tuberculosis caused the growth of many spas. In Denmark, the Society for Physical Therapy and Dietetic was formed in 1902, and in 1921 it changed its name to the Danish Physiatrists Society, later the Danish Society for Physiatrists and Rehabilitation. In the early 1980's the National Board of Health decided, that all specialties should rehabilitate patients within their own area, and the specialty for rehabilitation was abolished. Therefore, all doctors need to have knowledge of the biopsychosocial model and the involvement of other professional groups and sectors.

Psychosocial Adaptation to Disability Within the Context of Positive Psychology: Philosophical Aspects and Historical Roots

PURPOSE

The purpose of this article is to review the conceptual and clinical similarities that exist between the principles of positive psychology and those underlying rehabilitation counseling and psychology, occupational rehabilitation, and those espoused by the field of psychosocial adaptation to chronic illness and disability (CID).

METHODS

Three themes were selected for review. These included the historical contributions of early scholars in the area of psychosocial adaptation to CID that later were indirectly infused into mainstream positive psychology; state and trait constructs that constitute much of the infrastructure of positive psychology and psychosocial adaptation to CID; and, finally, the philosophical congruencies between positive psychology and psychosocial adaptation to CID.

CONCLUSION

The existing literature indicates that there is a substantial philosophical and conceptual overlap between the fields of positive psychology and psychosocial adaptation to CID. Since theoreticians and researchers, from both fields, often use differing terminology and definitions to describe similar concepts, as well as seek similar research goals, it would behoove both fields to seek a closer partnership in order to establish a meaningful dialogue that focuses on human strengths and virtues in the lives of people with CID.

[The medical, social and institutional challenges resulting from poliomyelitis: comprehensive rehabilitation in Argentina in the mid-twentieth century]

Poliomyelitis on an epidemic scale gave rise to several challenges, one of which was the rehabilitation from the after-effects on many of the people who suffered from the disease. Paralysis and the ways it transformed the concept of physical rehabilitation (where the objective was only to restore the mobility of the affected muscles) and comprehensive rehabilitation that included social, educational and professional aspects in Argentina in the mid-twentieth century are the themes addressed in this article. It uses the methodology of institutional history that interacts in an ongoing manner with the history of health and disease.

[The Karachi health resort: synthesis of science and practice]

This article is devoted to the history of one of the oldest Siberian health resorts known as "The Karachi Lake". It describes the stages of its development, the scientific component of the system of spa-and-resort therapy and medico-social rehabilitation of the patients. The detailed analysis of the mechanisms underlying the beneficial action of the natural therapeutic factors, cooperation with the leading research institutions, and the formation of the modern scientific and technical basis have strengthened the position of the resort on the market of the medical, health-promoting, and recreational services due to the development of the new activities in this field.

Rehabilitation and restoration: orthopaedics and disabled soldiers in Germany and Britain in the First World War

This article offers a comparative analysis of the evolution of orthopaedics and rehabilitation within German and British military medicine during the Great War. In it, we reveal how the field of orthopaedics became integral to military medicine by tracing the evolution of the discipline and its practitioners in each nation during the war. In doing so, however, we document not only when and why both medical specialists and military officials realized that maintaining their respective national fighting forces depended upon the efficient rehabilitation of wounded soldiers, but also how these rehabilitative practices and goals reflected the particularities of the military context, civilian society and social structure of each nation. Thus, while our comparison reveals a number of similarities in the orthopaedic developments within each nation as a response to the Great War, we also reveal significant national differences in war-time medical goals, rehabilitation treatments and soldierly 'medical experiences'. Moreover, as we demonstrate, a social and cultural re-conceptualization of the disabled body accompanied the medical advancements developed for him; however, this re-conceptualization was not the same in each nation. Thus, what our article reveals is that although the guns of August fell silent in 1918, the war's medical experiences lingered long thereafter shaping the future of disability medicine in both nations.

[Medical rehabilitation in the Armed Forces: history, current state and prospects]

Authors analyzed history, current state and prospects of medical rehabilitation in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Current system of medical rehabilitation in the Armed Forces provides all categories of military personnel and members of their families complete rehabilitative and remedial measures. An integration of rehabilitative experience of the medical service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation into the State system of medical rehabilitation, active participation of the medical service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in activity of National association of specialists of medical rehabilitation and regenerative medicine will allow to increase the effectiveness of the rehabilitation system of the Armed Forces.

Western medical rehabilitation through time: a historical and epistemological review

Medical rehabilitation is the process targeted to promote and facilitate the recovery from physical damage, psychological and mental disorders, and clinical disease. The history of medical rehabilitation is closely linked to the history of disability. In the ancient western world disabled subjects were excluded from social life. In ancient Greece disability was surmounted only by means of its complete removal, and given that disease was considered a punishment attributed by divinities to human beings because of their faults and sins, only a full physical, mental, and moral recovery could reinsert disabled subjects back in the society of "normal" people. In the Renaissance period, instead, general ideas functional for the prevention of diseases and the maintaining of health became increasingly technical notions, specifically targeted to rehabilitate disabled individuals. The history of medical rehabilitation is a fascinating journey through time, providing insights into many different branches of medicine. When modern rehabilitation emerges, around the middle of the twentieth century, it derives from a combination of management approaches focusing on the orthopaedic and biomechanical understanding of patterns of movement, on the mastering of neuropsychological mechanisms, and on the awareness of the social-occupational dimension of everyday reality.

[Reflexotherapy in the context of rehabilitative medicine]

The main stages of the history of reflexotheray and its principal methodological aspects are reviewed in the context of the introduction of this approach into rehabilitative medicine. Productive results of such integration find the demonstrative reflection in the defense of 56 theses for the degree of candidate of science and 28 ones for the degree of doctor of science devoted to various aspects of reflexotherapy. The growing tendency toward the more extensive application of non-pharmacological approaches to complementary medicine opens up new prospects for the further development of reflexotherapy in the context of modern health care practices.

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 Poznań and Konstancin near Warsaw.

Twenty years of multidisciplinary research and practice: the Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation then and now

BACKGROUND

Early research of work disability in the 1980s showed a complexity of factors influencing pain and health-related functional limitation at work; hence, multidisciplinary perspectives were necessary to understand the complex interplay between biomechanical, organizational, social, and psychological factors impacting work disability. To address this need, the Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation was founded in 1991 with the goal of providing a scientific, yet practical forum for presenting multidisciplinary research and practice in work disability. Now, the 20-year collection of articles in the Journal reflects important trends and directions in the field of occupational rehabilitation.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective summary of the past 20 years of the Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, including its inaugural goals and intent, rates of submission and acceptance, trends in the types of articles published, study topics, global distribution of authors, and future directions.

RESULTS

The original goal of providing a multidisciplinary scientific and practical forum has been met, but current trends reflect a maturing scientific evidence base, with less representation of employer-based case studies and practical innovations. There has been a dramatic increase in the international representation of studies, authors, and peer reviewers outside of the US. Also, published studies now address work disability for a larger number of health concerns.

CONCLUSIONS

Contributions to the Journal continue to reflect a multidisciplinary perspective, but the Journal has seen significant changes with respect to international representation, the expanding study of non-musculoskeletal sources of work disability, and the maturing scientific evidence base in the field of occupational rehabilitation. Future volumes of the Journal will likely reflect continuing changes in the global economy, workforce fitness, and job demands.

[The 'Krüppelfürsorge' during the Weimar Republic. Oscillating between an own position and the adoption of eugenic arguments]

This article examines the discourse about physical disability led by the German 'Krüppelfürsorge'. It deals with the exhibition GeSoLei (Gesundheitspflege, soziale Fürsorge and Leibesübungen), which took place in Düsseldorf in 1926. The GeSoLei was one of the most popular platforms of the healthy and aesthetic body in the 1920s. It stood in the context of the German 'national recovery' after World War I and collected all types of medical, social and athletic professionals to expose their work to a broader audience. Also representatives of the so called 'Krüppelfürsorge' presented themselves and at the same time their perspective on people with physical disabilities on this exhibition. The article points out the ambivalent character of their perspective and shows the mixture of including and excluding people with physical disabilities, which was typical for the view of the 'Krüppelfürsorge'. It demonstrates that the 'Krüppelfürsorger' on the one hand were quite progressive towards people with disabilities, but on the other hand showed a striking openness towards eugenic values.

The development of cardiac rehabilitation: a historical critical approach

Cardiac rehabilitation is an interdisciplinary and multidimensional process aimed at preventing and containing cardiovascular mortality, morbidity and disability, and promoting health in subjects with cardiocirculatory pathologies. A body of scientific evidence is today available with regard to the benefits of cardiac rehabilitation in terms of the containment of the progression of atherosclerosis, the increase in physical work ability, the reduction in symptomatology, the improvement in psychological well being and social re-adaptation, and the lowering in hospitalization rates and in recurrent clinical cardiac events. Cardiac rehabilitation derives its origin from the application of physical activity to the therapy of ischemic heart disease, and in this paper the historical evolution of the concept of angina pectoris and myocardial infarction as also the major progress in therapeutic exercise are discussed. Cardiac rehabilitation has become through time a multi-faceted process implemented in hospitals, in outpatient clinics and at home in a variety of models. However, recent data indicate that, in the USA, no more than 20% of eligible patients per year enter cardiac rehabilitation programs, and in Europe no more than 30% participate in them. The historical perception of cardiac rehabilitation provides knowledge of the fact that, through a long and articulated process, this health intervention has achieved relevant medical and social results and it also generates the awareness of the further advantages to be obtained in future cardiovascular patients.