The future is in our hands.

摘要

For more than 50 years I have been a clinical and academic physiatrist. I fulfilled my residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Walter Reed General Hospital in the late 1950s while serving in the U.S. Army. World War II and the Korean War had ended, and physiatrists at home were still finding their way in treating the human damage of war: military men and women who survived battle but with severe physical and mental impairment. Then the polio epidemics hit, leaving tens of thousands of persons paralyzed. With the establishment of Medicare in the 1960s, we were charged with caring for the elderly, with their unique and multiple debilities. Wars, terrorism, disease pandemics, natural disasters, human-made disasters, accidents, aging, developmental disabilities, and finite health care resources-could physiatrists face more challenging circumstances, then or now or in the future? Credit for the establishment of the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation in the 1930s belongs to Frank H. Krusen, MD, but many physiatrists over several decades have responded heroically to human distress and exhibited foresight in preparing for problems and opportunities to come.