The Practice of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in subSaharan Africa and Antarctica: A White Paper or a Black Mark?

Abstract

Antarctica is doing fine. Africa is in a crisis. Local medical schools, hospitals doctors, and persons with disability; along with foreign volunteers, aid groups, and policymakers can impact the crisis. However government-specifically national ministries of health-is ultimately responsible for the health and wellbeing of citizens.

Changing practice: Implications of the World Report on Disability for responding to communication disability in under-served populations

“…Approximately 80% of the global population with disabilities resides in the Majority World (United Nations, 2008), yet health and rehabilitation professionals to meet the needs of these people with disability are in short supply (Anyangwe & Mtonga 2007;Gupta, CastilloLaborde, & Landry, 2011;World Health Organization, 2006). Haig, Im, Adewole, Nelson, andKrabek (2009, p. 1036) highlighted this as follows:…”

The International Rehabilitation Forum: Growing New Leadership for Rising Countries

“…When we found that there were only 6 PM&R physicians in all of Sub-Saharan Africa, we made a joke of it: 'The White Book on Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in Africa and Antarctica'. (2). Except the 'joke' was published in 5 journals around the world as a sign of global alarm and has been cited repeatedly in World Health Organization and other policy documents, as a call to strengthen PM&R throughout the world.…”

Construct validation of the Language Independent Functional Evaluation versus the Barthel Index in a Mongolian community

“…The importance of valid epidemiological measures of function cannot be over estimated. Recently, five rehabilitation medicine journals simultaneously published a white paper exposing the complete lack of the specialty of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine in subSaharan Africa [15]. Members of a community-based rehabilitation consortium debated these findings, claiming that Africa is well served by community-based programmes [16].…”