49. Performing Arts Medicine Around the World

November 19, 2022 I participated in this webinar representing the Philippines, and learned so much from the experiences of a diverse group of healthcare professionals from the United Kingdom, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Norway, Romania, South Africa, Singapore and Australia. The webinar is available here, although at this time it may only be accessible to members […]

Communication and its Importance in Rehabilitation, Part 2

In the last blog post, we tackled communication’s importance in a patient’s active participation in rehabilitation and adjusting to their “new normal” after a life-changing event. The rehabilitation team’s patient-centered care involves communicating information in a timely manner, promoting a supportive environment and building good relationships with the patient and family and delivering both bad […]

Communication and its Importance in Rehabilitation, Part 1

A recent blog post tackled the importance of communication in healthcare, and how good communication can lead to better patient outcomes, safety and population health. I also wrote about how I enjoyed a course on healthcare communication in my last semester of school. One of the required assessments for the course was a final research […]

The Gender Divide: Boxing and Headgear

Since I wrote this stuff in a Facebook post, I might as well put it in the blog for posterity. OK… watching boxing at the 2020/2021 Tokyo Olympics has me curious. Why do the women have helmets, and the men don’t? The answer can be found here: https://globalsportmatters.com/health/2019/08/27/aiba-drops-headgear-male-amateur-boxers-female-fighters-wear-them/ TL, DR in selected quotes: the AIBA […]

Exercise and Dance in Parkinson’s Disease (PD)

In the last blog post, I discussed how Parkinson’s disease can affect function, i.e., how you get through the activities of your day. In this post, I tackle how exercise – as part of a rehabilitation program – helps in Parkinson’s Disease. Rehabilitation in Parkinson’s disease is goal-based. What does that mean? It means that […]

How does Parkinson’s Disease affect function? Or, why can’t I do what I used to do?

What is Parkinson’s disease? I do not want to reinvent the wheel, so I’m going to direct you to this very good explanation from the Mayo Clinic and the Parkinson’s Foundation. How does rehabilitation help? While rehabilitation cannot make Parkinson’s Disease go away, it can help by improving function and enhancing quality of life. To […]

Inclusivity and disability in the news this week

I saw several pieces in the electronic media this week that highlight the growing efforts to include persons with disability in everyday life. The European Space Agency put out a call for astronauts with physical disabilities – a push for parastronauts to be included in the entering class of 2021. In its own words, the […]

Training to be a Physiatrist (and Beyond)

I wrote some basic information about Rehabilitation Medicine in the first post for this category. You can read that here to refresh your memory. Specialty training in Rehabilitation Medicine occurs in residency (side note: it’s called “residency” because in the past, graduate medical education required the trainees to live in the hospital – thus they […]

FAQ for SCI: Some Frequently Asked Questions about Spinal Cord Injury

BruceBlaus, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons We briefly tackled what an SCI is on the Resources for SCI page, but here’s a bit more in-depth information. To recap: the spinal cord can be thought of as an extension of your brain – it is made of nerve tissue that runs from the base of […]

Rehabilitation Medicine (JOINT journal entry)

August 22, 1998 Saturday Dear everyone-on-my-generic-on-line-journal-of-internship mailing list, Hello! This installment of the journal is about my 2-week rotation in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, which happens to be my specialty of choice. Duh? For people who do net know about this young field, Rehabilitation (a.k.a. Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, PM&R or Physiatry) is called […]