SHILLONG: Nazareth Hospital in the city has started a rehabilitation medicine outpatient department.
Rehabilitation Medicine, or Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, is a comparatively new specialty whose MD course started in India in 1979.
Rehabilitation is a tabooed term and many people link it to alcohol and drugs. However, this specialty deals with disorders and ailments of the physical body. Some examples are strokes, amputations, cerebral palsy, spinal cord and nerve injuries and back pain, among others.
The team of rehabilitation medicine consists of the MD physician, physio, occupational and speech therapists, prosthetist and orthotist, psychologist and social workers. At present, the Nazareth team is small but they hope to have a full team shortly.
