Historical Perspective
The Medical Student's Guide to Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
The roots of PM&R date back to the use of physical
agents such as the sun's heat and hot springs for medicinal purposes in
early recorded history. The field began in the 1930s to address
musculoskeletal and neurological problems, but broadened its scope
considerably after World War II. As thousands of veterans returned to the United States with serious
disabilities, the task of helping to restore them to productive lives became a
new direction for the field. The Advisory Board of Medical Specialties granted
PM&R its approval as a specialty of medicine in 1947.
Dr. Howard A. Rusk, one of the specialty's pioneers,
described three phases of medical care-preventive medicine, curative medicine
and surgery, and rehabilitation. He stated that the third phase was not to be
one of passive convalescence, but of active training to regain and maximize
functional abilities to achieve greater independence and quality of life.
Hence, the raison d'être of this specialty. Since Dr. Rusk's early
observations, the application of rehabilitation principles has expanded to
where they are often included in the preventive and curative phases of medical
care.
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