History of Physiotherapy  

   If one goes back in time, you will find forms of physiotherapy used centuries ago. Hippocrates advocated massage and Hector used hydrotherapy (water therapy) in 460 B.C.

The earliest documented origins of actual physical therapy as a professional group date back to Per Henrik Ling, “Father of Swedish Gymnastics,” who founded the Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics (RCIG) in 1813 for massage, manipulation, and exercise. 

 The word Physical therapist is a Swedish word       “sjukgymnast” = “sick-gymnast.” Modern physical therapy was established to the end of the 19th century in Britain.  

After American orthopedic surgeons began treating children with disabilities they began employing women trained in fields of physical education, massage, and remedial exercise. These treatments were promoted further during the Polio outbreak of 1916. During the First World War women were recruited to work with and restore physical function to injured soldiers, and the field of physical therapy was institutionalized.

The first school of physical therapy was established at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington D.C. following the outbreak of World War I.  The first physical therapy research was published March 1921 in “The PT Review"-United States.   Treatment in 1940s primarily consisted of exercise, massage, and traction. Manipulative procedures to the spine and extremity joints began to be practiced, in the early 1950s.

Later that decade, physical therapists started to move beyond hospital-based practice to outpatient orthopedic clinics, public schools, colleges/universities, geriatric settings (skilled nursing facilities), rehabilitation centers and medical centers.

Physical therapy in the U.S. was more specialized as form 1974.

Now we know where our profession originated from. I think we are lucky, to be able to 

to be medical professionals in our modern era with technology and a lot of evidenced based research at our finger tips. Just so much more we can do to help our patients.