Aspects of training important to future physical and rehabilitation medicine physicians and our specialty training.

There is no universal training curriculum for Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM) physicians. While PRM claims no organ system or tissue impairment, it specializes in maximizing function. It is imperative that we train excellent physicians who are experts in the evaluation of the nervous and musculoskeletal systems. However, we need to develop a more globally uniform curriculum with respect to specific didactic lectures, workshops, and so on, for diagnostic categories such as spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, stroke, etc., which can be modified to address local issues. If we can agree upon this, it will eventually progress to uniform curriculum training of all PRM physicians. My program utilizes an 18-month modular curriculum by diagnostic category that is repeated twice during the 36-month training program The core values with respect to the specialty of PRM (1) are listed below. • Functional improvement is as important as treatment or cure of impairment. • We respect all who can help provide care and help our patients improve, including our patients themselves, and their families and friends. • Teams can accomplish much more than individuals. • Physical agents may be as useful as chemical ones for the treatment and management of diseases. • Education is a key to improving health and function. • Our obligation to our patients compels us to address not only the patient, but also our community and our environment. • Our role as PRM physicians includes social advocacy. PRM physicians should not only manage therapists and administer patient care over the continuum, but they must also be trained to diagnose and treat individual patients. It is well to remember that "quality rises to the top". We should always strive for quality in the patient care we render. It is up to the various accrediting bodies of the training programs and certifying PRM boards of individuals in the various countries to evaluate critically the graduating trainees and their training programs (2). I realize that this accreditation, certification model does not apply to all countries, and varies among countries. We need to develop expert methods to evaluate objectively our trainees' clinical competencies, including communication skills, and that we evaluate these competencies during our board certification process and throughout their professional careers. In my training program, I utilize an annual 9-station objective, standardized, clinical examination (OSCE) to provide this objective evaluation to the trainee and faculty (www. kmrrec.org) (3, 4). EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE …