European Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ESPRM)

The European Society of PRM was founded in 2003, changing the European Federation of the PRM Societies which was created in 1963.

The National societies (which in 1963 were only 5) reached 39 ( including 36 Full members Societies + 3 Cooperating Societies).

In this period PRM strongly enriched its role all over Europe, gaining responsibilities in Health Services in many Countries (unfortunately having many differences in educational and professional fields) and receiving some acknowledgments by the European bodies too.

In Europe, while most of the other medical specialties have existed for a long time under the same names in the different countries (Cardiology, Neurology, Radiology, etc...), it is of interest to observe that Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM) began to be organised during the years of laborious birth of the great political European organizations, Council of Europe in 1949, and then European Community (Treaty of Rome) in 1957. The specialty of PRM, in Europe, has therefore found its strength and spirit in the foundations of the European mind.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, some doctors, from different European countries, linked by the same mind and spirit and the same will to go ahead, got to work in order to individualize, to make autonomous, and to develop the new speciality which was neither known nor named at that time.