It goes without saying that 2020 was a challenging year for us all. Our health systems and health workers were pushed to the limit, previously normal social activities and working environments were changed beyond our imagination, online services responded at unplanned speed and volume, and everyone faced exhausting mental health hurdles.
At the start of 2020 we (the Physiopedia team) made a plan to “keep it simple” but as Kim, the Physiopedia content manager suggested, “I don’t think 2020 heard you!”. It has been by no means simple, although keeping this in mind has afforded us the energy to see it through.
This year we learnt how to respond:
- New COVID-19 related content was added to Physiopedia – 27 pages in total.
- 2 COVID-19 ebooks were created and distributed to anyone that wished to have them.
- In total 21 COVID-19 online courses and, with the generous support of World Physiotherapy, were made available to anyone to access throughout 2020 – over 23,000 people have taken these courses
- Physioplus was made available to educational institutions for free to assist them in the rapid transition to remote teaching as a result of COVID-19 – over 100 universities took advantage of this opportunity
- The devastating explosion in Beirut created a need for rehabilitation knowledge to be shared and in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross and Humanity & Inclusion several online courses specific to this need were created – all physiotherapists in Lebanon have free access to these courses.
We were confirmed as a trusted health resource:
- Over 2 million individuals from every country in the world used Physiopedia each month (data from Google Analytics).
- Physiopedia was the most popular rehabilitation website in the world ranked number 48 out of all health and medicine websites (data from SimilarWeb)
- The Physiopedia App has over 100,000 downloads as a result of innovative features such as talking pages!
We continued our work as normal:
- 174 active editors managed over 3,715 pages of continually growing and improving evidence based content.
- Universities continue to integrate Physiopedia into their curriculum for digital skills development, group work, assignments and this year also virtual placements.
- Completed two volunteer orientation courses and welcomed over 50 new content editors to the team.
- Started the One Page Project which encourages physiotherapists worldwide to take responsibility for just one page in Physiopedia.
- Launched the Physiopedia Awards Programme for a Monthly Top Contributor and the Annual Awards.
- Formalised a partnership with Primal Pictures to share anatomy visualisations.
- Continued our collaboration with PREP to develop an online curriculum and course for physiotherapists working with Refugees.
We were broken, born and grown:
- We had one fractured clavicle, a fractured foot, a torn calf, a case of dengue fever and several cases of COVID-19 – we commend (but don’t necessarily recommend) the commitment of our team for showing up at times of ill health and injury!
- 3 new babies joined the team – we look forward to seeing their inquisitive and smiling faces for many meetings to come!
- There are currently 70 volunteers from around 20 countries on the content editing team – they are Physiopedia’s incredible life line.
And the final golden icing on the 2020 cake:
After nearly a year of preparatory work we were awarded a grant by USAID for strengthening rehabilitation in health systems. Physiopedia are delighted to join the Learning, Acting and Building for Rehabilitation in Health Systems consortium (ReLAB-HS). Along with consortium partners, we will implement this flagship program that will address the growing global need for physical rehabilitation services. This will be our focus and give us direction for 2021.
Summing up:
The Physiopedia team performed miracles last year, not only in all that they achieved but at the same time we became stronger and highly functioning as a team, which for a geographically and culturally distributed team is a rare and impressive quality. To the team, you are amazing, we couldn’t do this without you!
To everyone that engaged with Physiopedia in 2020, we thank you! Editors, your altruistic contributions reach rehabilitation professionals worldwide; Partners, your support is invaluable, we are better in all that we do because of you; Users, we thank you for trusting us as your go to information source and making us the most popular rehabilitation resource in the world; Donors, the charity wouldn’t be what it is without you, we will always be grateful for your financial support.
Coping has been the essence of 2020, we advocate for Resilience in 2021.