Professional Practice Committee | Print |

The aim of the Professional Practice Committee is to ensure best standards in professional practice of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM) in prevention, clinical management and rehabilitation  throughout Europe. This includes equity of access for people with disabilities and longer term conditions to PRM services and comparability of professional standards across Europe, a prerequisite for mobility of PRM doctors between European countries. This process is based on the Medical Act:

 

The main focus of the Professional Practice Committee is the description and development of the field of competence (FoC) of the PRM specialist in Europe. FoC is an umbrella term for expertise, skills and professionalism of PRM specialists as well as the way of cooperation and interaction with other specialties and health professionals. Of course, the role of PRM in different settings (“from acute hospitals to the community”) and the parameters for the access to specialised PRM programmes are included.

  

The action plan of the Professional Practice Committee for the years 2008 to 2010 has been published recently (Gutenbrunner C, Delarque A: Action Plan of the Professional Practice Committee-UEMS Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine Section: description and development of our field of competence. Eur J Phys Rehabil Med 2009; 45: 275-280)

 

The Professional Practice Committee contributed to the White Book on Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine in Europe, which was published in 2006/2007. This book describes the need for rehabilitation in Europe and the role and competencies of the specialist in Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine. It has been translated into many European languages. (Gutenbrunner C, Ward AB, Chamberlain MA (Eds.): White Book on Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine in Europe. Europa Medicophysica 2006: 42: 287-332, J Rehabil Med 2007; 45, Suppl. 1: 1-48)

 

The Professional Practice Committee took part in the development of ICF-based conceptual descriptions of the Rehabilitation Strategy and Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (Stucki G, Melvin J: The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: a unifying Model for the Conceptual Description of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine. J Rehabil Med 2007; 39: 286-292; Stucki G, Cieza A, Melvin J: The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: a unifying Model for the Conceptual Description of the Rehabilitation Strategy. J Rehabil Med 2007; 39: 279–285) and is participating in the development of ICHA.

 

To fulfill its action plan, the Professional Practice Committee is preparing a series of papers describing the Field of Competence in detail. These papers will be published in medical journals cooperating with the UEMS-PRM-Section and will be part of a new Ebook on the FoC of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (Editors: C. Gutenbrunner, A. Delarque, V. Neumann) accessible via this website. It will contain position papers, papers entitled “Meeting health needs comprehensively” and discussion papers. (in preparation)

 

The Professional Practice Committee organizes sessions about specific topics related to the Field of Competence in national, European & other international PRM-congresses. Information on forthcoming events is available via the following links: