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Professional Practice Committee
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: link
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. 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 Professional Practice Committee contributed to the 3rd edition of the White Book on Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine in Europe, that was produced by the 4 European PRM Bodies (European Academy of Rehabilitation Medicine – EARM, European Society of PRM – ESPRM, European Union of Medical Specialists – PRM Section, European College of PRM-ECPRM served by the European Union of Medical Specialists PRM Board) and constitutes the reference book for PRM physicians in Europe. The new edition of the White book was launched during the 21st ECPRM, Vilnius, May 2018. link
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)
Professional Practice Committee, since 2009 has been preparing a series of papers describing the Field of Competence of PRM specialists – the role of PRM physicians for patients with different health conditions or related topics of PRM interest.
These papers are being published in medical journals cooperating with the UEMS PRM Section and are part of the E-book on the Field of Competence. The PPC e-book part I was published in 2014, including 16 papers. (Editors: C. Gutenbrunner, A. Delarque, V. Neumann) accessible via this website. link
The PPC e-book part II was published in 2018 (Editors Nicolas Christodoulou and Enrique Varela Donoso). In the second part a new methodological approach has been used to have a common and validated scientific structure. The Position Papers are Evidence Based (EBPP), comprising a systematic review as well as a Delphi Consensus procedure among the EU Countries delegates. (Negrini S, Kiekens C, Zampolini M, Wever D, Varela Donoso E, Christodoulou N. Methodology of “Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine practice, Evidence Based Position Papers: the European position” produced by the UEMS-PRM Section. European Journal of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine 2016;52:134-41). It contains 11 papers, accessible via this website. link
The III part of the e-book is under preparation. Whereas Part I covered some overarching topics such as PRM over the health phases or team working, Part II was focused on health conditions only, as are the topics for part III up to now but other topics, for example related to diagnostics or therapeutic interventions will also be considered.
The UEMS PRM Section is co-author and financer of the Cochrane Rehabilitation Ebook and nominated three delegates in the Editorial Board to review the political summaries before their formal acceptance during the General Assembly.
The Professional Practice Committee is collaborating with other international PRM organizations and organizes sessions about specific topics related to the Field of Competence in national, European & other international PRM-congresses.
