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What is Rehabilitation?

Rehabilitation Physicians work as part of a team of therapists that use medicine, exercise, psychology and training to help people recover from serious injuries and illness so they can achieve the highest quality of life possible.
It takes a doctor 6 years to train and qualify to be a rehabilitation physician and they work to rehabilitate people of all ages from the very youngest to the very oldest, in hospitals, clinics, workplaces and/or in their homes.
The main conditions they treat are those that effect the muscles, nerves and skeleton such as stroke, fractures, work injuries, spinal cord or brain injuries and amputations.
Rehabilitation physicians are expert in the management of the complications of illness and injuries like pain, stiffness, fatigue, memory loss, regaining fitness, and even the use of
devices that assist independence from a prosthetic leg to smart house.

Rehabilitation Medicine: Bridging Health, Independence and Wellbeing

Rehabilitation medicine is a specialist field of medicine that performs a pivotal role in improving the lives of individuals experiencing both temporary or permanent disability. The specialty promotes restoration of an individual’s ability in physical, functional and psychosocial domains with the ultimate goal of assisting each individual to pursue their chosen lifestyle with independence and dignity. In Australasia, practitioners of rehabilitation medicine are known as rehabilitation medicine physicians; a term used synonymously with physiatrists in other parts of the globe.

Click here to view full article by Nathaniel Chandra

 

REPORTS WRITTEN

In April 2023  RMSANZ together with individual rehabilitation physicians were recognised for their submission on the role of rehabilitation in the treatment of long COVID to Dr Mike Freedlander MP who was the chair of the parliamentary committee on Long Covid. Our submission was noted many times in the report and assisted in the recommendation of early multidisciplinary rehabilitation as a treatment to be commenced as soon as the diagnosis of long COVID is considered. Linked below is a section of the report, the full report can be found here. 

The board would like to thanks those rehabilitation physicians that made submission both as part of the RMSANZ submission or on their own or representing their department in their institution’s report.
Particular thanks goes to Prof Maria Crotty, AROC, Dr Gardiner, and  Dr Tuan-Anh Nguyen for their substantial contribution in advancing the importance of rehabilitation for long COVID.
Their work has driven another success in advocacy for Rehabilitation Medicine in Australia and New Zealand.

Partial Long COVID report

SUBMISSIONS

RMSANZ Healthcare Funding Submission

RMSANZ submission to Parliamentary enquiry into Long COVID

POSITION STATEMENTS

RMSANZ Position Statement for the therapeutic use of botulinum toxin A in Spasticity Management (2023)

RMSANZ Position Statement on Rehabilitation in COVID-19 (Sept 2022)

RMSANZ Position Statement on the Therapeutic Use of Botulinum Toxin in Rehabilitation Medicine for spasticity and dystonia (May 2017)

RMSANZ Position Statement on role of rehab physician Sept 2017

RMSANZ Position Statement on the Rehabilitation following Total Knee Replacement (May 2018)