A major role for the Society is to serve as a medium for advocacy on behalf of rehabilitation physicians in Australia and New Zealand to improve health, function and quality of life of people living with disabilities, with a dedicated and clear focus that is independent and unconstrained by competing interests. The Society has already prepared a number of submissions and published three position statements.
RMSANZ Advisory Council: The Society has a membership driven organisational structure and philosophy. The Advisory Council allows direct representation from the different groups within the society (branches and SIGs, see organisation chart) to the board and helps prevent the board from operating in isolation of the sentiments and needs of the membership. It also will allow links to be formed with the outside community and other professional bodies. The Advisory Council is chaired by the society Vice President and had its first meeting in May 2017. See Organisational Chart
RMSANZ Regional Branches: Branches in NSW/ACT, Victoria/Tasmania, South Australia /Northern Territory and Queensland New Zealand Branch have been formed. All branches have achieved a positive cash flow in their operations and actively plan collegiate activities. Branches are vital structural elements of the society which represent the interests of members at a local level. They receive full encouragement from the RMSANZ Board and administrative support in the conduct of their meetings.
RMSANZ Special Interest Groups (SIGs): Five SIGs have been established. The Private Practice SIG is currently interested in the interface between Rehabilitation Medicine practice in private hospitals and health insurance funding issues for rehabilitation services. The Pain SIG has embarked on an online survey of Members' areas of interest in educational workshops and CPD activities so as to plan future presentations and meetings. Prosthetics and Orthotics was formed in 2018 with their interests in amputee rehabilitation, prosthetics and orthotics. The NeuroRehab SIG are current members of World Federation of NeuroRehabilitation (WFNR) and the Disaster Rehabilitation SIG are active in publishing journals and work in conjunction with ISPRM to draft disaster rehabilitation response plans (read more here). Each SIG operates in a facilitatory environment for the conduct of meetings and pursuit of advocacy on behalf of Members, forming an expanding event horizon of influence in rehabilitation that has led to associate membership for interested medical, nursing and allied health professionals in this part of the world.
RMSANZ is dedicated to its active membership and is driven by the needs of its members. We have a singular and independent focus on rehabilitation medicine. The growth of the Specialty is reflected in the growth of the Society.