During the closing ceremony of the 2023 ISPO Congress a song was played and one verse stood out \u201cISPO is multi-professional\u201d.\u00a0 ISPO stands for the International Society of Prosthetics and Orthotics and Physiopedia recently attended the organisation\u2019s 19th congress as both exhibitor and presenter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The interprofessional Physiopedia team, also representing <\/span>ReLAB-HS<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0 played many different roles at the recent ISPO congress in Guadalajara, Mexico. ReLAB-HS work was presented in a symposium and platform presentations, a new collaboration with ISPO was shared and the exhibition stand provided a space to meet and greet colleagues.<\/span><\/p>\n ReLAB-HS activities are focused on integrating rehabilitation into health systems. There are many different facets of this work and Physiopedia\u2019s role as part of this consortium is focused on the rehabilitation workforce.\u00a0 Activities have identified many opportunities for interprofessional education (IPE)\u00a0 to strengthen the rehabilitation workforce and the ISPO congress represented a great opportunity to share these findings.\u00a0 A symposium session that included video presentations from team members in Myanmar, Uganda, Ukraine and Pakistan highlighted developments, opportunities and benefits for interprofessional rehabilitation education. Formative work that identified interprofessional rehabilitation education opportunities through a comparative review of competencies and standards was shared as a platform presentation.\u00a0<\/span>With IPE\u00a0 being such a hot topic of the congress, these sessions were well received.<\/span><\/p>\n It always helps to have a base in the exhibition hall to easily meet with colleagues, this congress was no different. Our interprofessional team were very pleased to welcome and interact with visitors from all over the world,\u00a0 from many different professions, including orthotics and prosthetics (P&O), occupational therapy (OT), physiotherapy (PT), physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R), physicians, and multiple sectors such as clinicians, educators and organisation leadership. The collaborative spirit of the congress meant that many congress attendees stopped by the Physiopedia stand multiple times to share how they use Physiopedia, update the team about their congress experiences, and to talk about different options for partnership.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Physiopedia and ISPO will take IPE further by partnering in the provision of professional development opportunities. All <\/span>ISPO members will have a 30% discount<\/span><\/a> for an annual Physiopedia Plus membership and Plus members will also receive a discount to access the courses on ISPO learn (coming soon!).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Physiopedia would like to extend special thanks to the outgoing ISPO President, Claude Tardif for driving the education partnership and applaud the incoming president David Constantine for his vision for connecting professions and encouraging collaboration. We look forward to advancing interprofessional collaborations to drive the integration of all rehabilitation professions into health systems around the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This work is supported by the USAID funded Learning Acting Building for Rehabilitation in Health Systems (ReLAB-HS)<\/a> project and is not possible without the generous and committed contribution of the Leahy War Victims fund<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n