Come on, get involved to contribute to your profession in 2017!

Physiopedia relies on the professional community to produce the best free physiotherapy and physical therapy content in the world and you can be a part of the team.

What is Physiopedia?

Physiopedia began in 2009 and has continued to expand since its inception.  The mission is to improve global health through universal access to physiotherapy knowledge through open access courses, content and global collaboration. Starting with just 3 pages written by Rachel Lowe the website has grown to over 2,300 of original content written by a ever-growing group of physiotherapists and physical therapists in every continent (and some countries you wouldn’t expect!).

Why get involved?

Amputee rehabilitation course participants from Gaza in 2015

When you contribute to something on Physiopedia you are making a difference to people around the world. Anyone can read it, anyone can use it. It helps those in less resourced countries find information to promote health and manage chronic illness. It helps those who are unable to attend courses learn new skills and clinical reasoning. It helps those unable to afford text books or journal subscriptions keep at the pinnacle of physiotherapy developments. It helps those who need a quick refresher between patients when they are nervous. It helps support those who are looking for a change to their CPD habits and fall back in love with the profession. It is a way to keep in touch with whats happening around the world and interact with people you wouldn’t normally be able to.

Perhaps you are unsure what you want to specialise in, or perhaps you want to change specialty. Volunteering for Physiopedia can provide the stepping stone you need to shape your skills to suit a new area.

What is stopping you?

Volunteers at the first Physiopedia Hackathon in 2016

Everyone has something to offer – you don’t need to wait until you are a leader in any particular field to make excellent, valuable contributions. You also don’t need to give up all of your free time – we would never turn down an offered half an hour!

When you click through to the sign up page you will see how quick and easy it is to start getting involved. There are dozens of ways to contribute and you can choose which ones sound exciting and feel right to you.

You could be part of the fantastic Anatomy Project and help produce world class anatomy educational content available to all such as this page on the Cervical Vertebrae. These excellent anatomy pages then go on to become fundamental foundations for other projects like the ICRC Cerebral Palsy Content Development Project and the Spinal Cord Injury Content Creation Project. The projects then culminate in fantastic courses such as the Cerebral Palsy MOOC which are unrivalled learning experiences.

Can organisations and clinics contribute?

Photo taken in Bali after the 2014 WCPT conference (means the same with spelling mistakes!)
Photo taken in Bali after the 2014 WCPT conference (means the same with spelling mistakes!)

Yes! Educators have been running courses and assignments for their students in Physiopedia since 2009. This involves creating a structured environment for students to contribute content to the site as part of their education.  Institutions such as Bellarmine University have educational collaborations and projects with Physiopedia to help produce hundreds of high quality pages such as Alzheimer’s disease or BPPV. Students really enjoy creating something new and original and they say the best part is having a tangible outcome that contributes to the profession. They are proud of what they achieve and so are we.

Similar to educational projects, clinics and professional organisations are invited to engage their staff and members in contributing to the Physiopedia content as part of formalised continuing education and professional development projects.

Creating and editing this content is an ideal to way to learn the basics of what Physiopedia has to offer. Consider this as your opportunity to contribute to our profession’s worldwide knowledge database.

Physiopedia is a collaborative and team effort and this year is going to be the best yet, we’d love for you to be a part.

Click here to get involved