Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Subspecialties:
Hospice and Palliative Medicine:
Hospice Medicine is end-of-life medicine to help make the patient more comfortable and to ease the suffering. Palliative Medicine is a unique area of health care that has goals to relieve and prevent the suffering of all patients. Palliative Medicine uses a multi-factorial approach to caring for patient and relies on advice from the doctors, chaplains, nurses, social workers and other health care professionals if planning how to care for a patient.
Neuromuscular Medicine:
This is a relatively new area of medicine. It focuses on the comprehensive medicinal management of people with neuromuscular disorders. Examples are disorders of the muscles, nerves and neuromuscular junctions. The goal is to diagnose and treat these conditions.
Pain Medicine Rehabilitation:
This area of medicine looks at an interdisciplinary approach for relieving pain and suffering and improving the overall quality of life of those living with pain. This approach normally utilizes the team of medical doctors, physiotherapists, clinical psychologists, nurse practitioners and occupational therapists. Treatment for longer term pain include pharmacology measures including tricyclic antidepressants, analgesics and anticonvulsants, physical therapy, exercise, heat and ice application, intervention and psychological measures.
Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine:
Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine focuses on helping children with conditions affecting motor development, function and independence. This is a specialty division in which numerous health care providers work together to devise a plan to improve the patient's quality of life. It utilizes a unique approach to preventing, diagnosing, treating and managing physical and congenital impairments.
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation:
This branch of medicine looks to enhance and restore basic functional ability and quality of life for those people with serious physical impairments or disabilities. These doctors are often called Physiatrists. They specialize in trying to restore optimal function for people that have specific injuries to muscles, tissues, bones and the nervous system.
Spinal Cord Injury Medicine:
Spinal Cord Injury Medicine focuses on spinal cord injury or myelopathy. A spinal cord injury professional diagnoses and treats injuries and disorders of the spinal cord that result in loss of movement and feeling. Injuries to the spinal cord and affect a patient's psychological and physical well-being and the doctor normally treats the condition for life.
Sports Medicine Rehabilitation:
This area of health specialty services applies medical and scientific knowledge to lessen, recognize, care for and rehabilitate injuries that are related to sport. This includes exercises and recreational activities. A Certified Athletic Trainer is an example of a health professional the specializes in the health care of physical activity. They use various methods of Sports Medicine to care and prevent athletic injury.