Physiopedia 2022 Year in Review: An Incredible Journey!

As the new year begins, it gives us the opportunity to look back on the past year and reflect on what we’ve accomplished, what we could have done better, and what we hope to achieve in the coming year. January is always a time for reflection and introspection, and it’s an opportunity to set goals and make resolutions for the future.

At Physiopedia we started 2022 with the hope of broadening our horizons to be more inclusive of other professions in support of interprofessional care and to be more responsive to our patients in support of patient-centered care. 

As we look back on the past year in Physiopedia, it is good to see that we have achieved our goals and more! 2022 was an amazing journey where we faced new opportunities, met new people, and expanded our team to include other professions! To see the positive global impact we have had take a look at the infographic below. 

As we look forward to 2023, we want to say thank you to our volunteer content team, those of you visiting us seeking information and answers, and of course to Rachael and Tony (our founders and inspirations) for making 2022 an awesome year! In the words of Rachael “In 2023, we will maintain resilience, we will be strong, but most of all, we will support each other to build and deliver the world’s best platforms for your studies and professional development to support you through these uncertain and challenging times of permacrisis.”   

The year 2022 in brief (maybe not so brief)

January

We had visitors from Antarctica to Zimbabwe – in fact, 241 countries searched Physiopedia content. Our content is forever expanding, and this month we added information from the PT Knowledge Broker Project on the Resisted Exercise Initiative. Our team also chose to review communicable disease pages this month, what a perfect topic for flu season! Our first top contributor for 2022 was Tony Lowe, one of the founding team members of Physiopedia!  

February

This was a busy month. We saw Rachael and Tony visit Uganda to spread the word of Physiopedia and Physiopedia Plus (Plus) and to learn more about the rehabilitation needs in low-income countries. This was also the month we hosted our first remote student clinical placement! So many worries about how this would work, but it was beyond amazing. Our students, Greg and Beth, were adaptable, enthusiastic, and so knowledgeable. Their work has set us on the road to considering the needs of patients seeking rehabilitation guidance. We also met Tony Varela and the students from the Arkansas College of Health Education School of Physiotherapy. They teamed up with Physiopedia for a content development project looking at musculoskeletal dysfunctions. To correspond with the Winter Olympics, our team thought it would be a good idea to focus on content relating to winter sports injuries. Our top contributor for this month was Amanda Ager.

March

Things showed no signs of slowing down. The team was busy working on symposium ideas for World Physiotherapy. And talking of physiotherapy, Daphne created an amazing video on the “History of Physiotherapy” (she could have been an actor or TV presenter, but we are happy she chose physiotherapy for her career). With so many pages on Physiopedia, choosing a topic each month helps us to focus our efforts. This month, the team decided to look at pages relating to genetic disorders. Physiopedia also had a visit from Vatican City (we are definitely being noticed). Our top contributor for this month was Kate-Lynn Downey.

April

An exciting month – we held the first volunteer orientation course of the year. This is an opportunity for the community to take part in a 3-week programme to master the editing skills needed to join the volunteer content team. It was so much fun! While the new volunteers were busy editing tutorials, the rest of the team was updating the orthopaedic trauma pages and the PT Knowledge Broker Achilles Tendinopathy Toolkit pages. We said hi to Yara, our first Occupational Therapist to activate a Physiopedia editing account; our professions are growing!

May 

Business as usual with the team reviewing the topic of women’s health. This month also saw the graduation of volunteers from the recent orientation course and we had lots of new members join the volunteer content team. And a big shout out to our top contributor, Laura, who has been with the team since 2013.

June 

Half way through the year and no signs of slowing down. While the team was busy reviewing content relating to safe and speedy return to work, Rachael found herself in Copenhagen for a meeting arranged by the World Health Organisation on rehabilitation education in Eastern Europe and Asia. Next, it was off to Pakistan with Tony to explore the rehabilitation and education needs of students and the healthcare workforce! Our top contributor this month was Marie Coetzee.

July

The buzz in Physiopedia is at such a high level, it is contagious. World Physiotherapy have put out a call for abstracts, and the team was brainstorming ideas! This month also saw the announcement of the Physiopedia Annual Award Winners, our equivalent of the Oscars! The team still had time to review pages relating to the foot! What dedication and drive! Top contributor for July Olajumoke Ogunleye.

August 

Another busy month. This month the team visited their first Occupational Therapy Conference in Paris. What an amazing experience! Our topic of focus this month was Discharge Planning, we also saw a new content development project. Students from Redeemer’s University in Nigeria developed their Physioculture Journal Project. Our top contributor for August was Rucha Gadgil.

September 

Still full steam ahead. On 8 September, it is World Physiotherapy Day, so in line with their topic this year we decided to review content on osteoarthritis. The annual MOOC, Understanding the Rehabilitation Needs of Displaced Persons, started on 5 September. Wendy one of the content team volunteers, found herself in Malawi, where she shared her skills and also spread the word about Physiopedia and Physiopedia Plus and learned about the incredible reach of Physiopedia MOOCs! Our top contributor for September was Manisha Shrestha.

October 

Rachael and Tony were in Warsaw to meet with the team from Ukraine to discuss their education needs. This month the team was busy looking at paediatric content, and Lauren wrote her first Physiospot post: “Should you use crawling as a developmental milestone when assessing your paediatric patients?”. A big shout-out in October to Angeliki Chorti, our top contributor.

November 

Nicki, a prosthetist and orthotist, joined the volunteer content team, another first! We also held our second volunteer orientation course of the year. Is it that time already? Our top contributor this month is Carin Hunter.

December 

The team are still full of energy and this month they decided to review Sports, Exercise and Activity related content. We welcomed our new graduates from the recent volunteer orientation to the team! So much excitement, motivation and support flowing through Physiopedia!  

We hope that our year in review has inspired you to reflect on the past year and look forward to the year ahead. It’s a great time to set goals, make plans, and decide how you will make a difference in 2023. So take some time to reflect on what you want to achieve in the coming year, and remember that every day is an opportunity to make positive changes and live a better life.

– Don’t miss the Year in Review from Physiopedia Plus Education Director Tarina Van Der Stockt and find out how many learners in low income countries you helped to support last year