Demonstrating the vital role of physiatry throughout the health care continuum: Lessons learned from impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the disability community

Abstract

This article is one of a series published in the June 2021 issue of PM&R that collectively form a White Paper describing the vital role of Physiatry throughout the healthcare continuum during the COVID crisis. CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUNDTo situate the field of physical medicine & rehabilitation (PM&R) in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we start with a look back at another defining event in the history of physiatry-the polio epidemic of the 1940s and 1950s, as described by a polio survivor:A fear of the unknown. The need to maintain an appropriate distance. An urgent desire to find a cure or vaccine. They're the hallmarks of the coronavirus pandemic, but they also characterized an earlier epidemic: when paralysis-causing polio ravaged the U.S. in the 1940s and '50s. 1 A highly infectious and indiscriminate disease, at its peak in 1952, there were 57,628 reported cases, 3145 deaths, and 21,269 people left with mild to disabling paralysis. 2 " Unlike COVID-19, polio disproportionately affected children. Many children with disabilities secondary to polio grew up to be leaders in the disability rights movement, critiquing the medical model of disability and the harm of attempts to normalize their bodies through years of experimental surgeries and therapy.As a specialty we owe a great debt to these disability activists.

Equity: Critical Conversations—Introduction

“…The perspectives shared with us illustrate that the renewed interest in health equity due to the COVID‐19 pandemic, in which marginalized communities have experienced worse health outcomes due to structural barriers, biases, and inequities inherent in the U.S. health care system, 1‐3 requires intersection with the literature on DEI efforts. The benefits of a diverse workforce have been well documented in the business literature, 4 including findings that diverse companies have, on average, better financial results than other companies and that diversity contributes to more effective problem‐solving 5 and better decision making 6 .…”