Physical Therapist

Physical Therapy (Physiotherapy, PT or Physio) is carried out by Physical Therapists (Physiotherapists or PTs) and they play an important role in today’s healthcare system. As healthcare experts inrestoring and improving motion, they contribute to their patients’ quality of life by keeping them healthy, fit, and active and, in many instances, avoiding surgery and long-term use of prescriptionmedications. Although most people are familiar with the term physical therapy, few know of how this very important profession came to be.
Today’s common practices of using exercise, massage, heat,cold, water, and electricity, date back to Greek culture and Hippocrates’ influence as the father of Western medicine. In Europe during the 1500s – 1700s, the use of exercise to treat muscle and bonedisorders and disabilities continued to progress. By the 1800s, exercise and muscle re-education were utilized for a variety of orthopedic diseases and injuries.
When the polio epidemic becamewidespread in the United States in 1916, the need for muscle testing and muscle re-education to restore function grew dramatically. In 1917, the United States entered World War I, and the Army recognized theneed to rehabilitate soldiers injured in battle. As a result, a special unit of the Army Medical Department, the Division of Special Hospitals and Physical Reconstruction, developed 15 “reconstructionaide” training programs to respond to the need for medical workers with expertise in rehabilitation. The profession of physical therapy, as it was later termed, had begun.
Physiotherapiststypically do the following:
Diagnose patients’ dysfunctional movements by watching them stand or walk and by listening to their concerns.

Set up a plan for their patients, outlining the patient's goalsand the planned treatments.

Use exercises, stretching maneuvers, hands-on therapy, and equipment to ease patients’ pain and to help them increase their ability to move.

Evaluate a patient’s...