Global initiatives in rehabilitation medicine

Walsh NE. Global initiatives in rehabilitation medicine. Global initiatives in rehabilitation medicine present significant challenges, as well as great opportunities for the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation. These initiatives are international in focus, from multiple countries, include many different medical specialties, and will impact physiatrists. The Bone and Joint Decade is a global multidisciplinary initiative that aims to reduce the burden of musculoskeletal disorders. Its aim is to improve the health-related quality of life of people with or at risk of musculoskeletal disorders. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is a unified and standard classification system for describing health domains and health-related states with quantifiable assessment measures. The ICF is a significant change from current medical models to patient- and rehabilitation-oriented models of evaluating function, disability, and health status. Medical Professionalism in the New Millennium: A Physician Charter helps define medicine's contract with society. The demand for medical professionalism is the result of unparalleled challenges facing the physician on a daily basis. The Physician Charter provides a reaffirmation of the Hippocratic oath in modern terms. The Maintenance of Certification is a response of organized medicine to the demand for physician competence during an entire career. This is a means of establishing safeguards to protect the public and of delivering a criterion standard for health care. These initiatives will have a profound influence on our future. I encourage each of you to participate in your own future through these activities.