The Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Kansas Medical Center traces its roots to 1944, when rehabilitation medicine was only beginning to emerge as a distinct medical specialty in the United States. From our origins as a department led by a single physician to today's multidisciplinary academic program, more than eight decades of growth have been shaped by advances in rehabilitation medicine, changing patient needs and generations of physicians committed to helping people recover function and independence.

The Emergence of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Physical medicine and rehabilitation is a relatively young medical specialty. Its roots stretch back much further, but PM&R began developing into the field we know today in the United States during the late 1930s and 1940s.

At the time, a small group of physicians began working to establish physical medicine as its own area of medical practice. Early leaders included Frank H. Krusen, John S. Coulter, William Bierman and Richard Kovacs, with Walter J. Zeiter helping organize the developing field. In 1943, the Baruch Committee provided funding and support that helped bring physicians interested in physical medicine together and move the new specialty forward.

In 1947, the field established its own medical specialty board, a milestone representing the field's growth. Specialty boards set standards for physician training and evaluate whether physicians have the knowledge and skills required to become board certified in a particular area of medicine. The new American Board of Physical Medicine gave the emerging field formal recognition as a distinct medical specialty. In 1949, it was renamed the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, reflecting the growing importance of rehabilitation within the field.

The specialty was also growing in response to a practical need. War injuries, polio, neurologic conditions and other serious illnesses left many people with long-term changes in movement and function. Medicine could increasingly help people survive these conditions, but survival was not the end of the story. Patients also needed physicians focused on what came next: restoring function, adapting to lasting changes and helping people return as fully as possible to their daily lives.

That mission became central to physical medicine and rehabilitation and remains at the heart of the specialty today.

The beginning of PM&R at KU Medical Center

Rehabilitation at KU Medical Center predates the department itself. Bell Memorial Hospital, built in 1924, included several basement rooms where therapy treatments were provided. By 1944, leaders recognized the need for a physician to oversee this care and establish an educational program in physical therapy.

That year, Gordon Martin, M.D., established the Rehabilitation Medicine department at KU Medical Center, one of the early departments of its kind in the country. Dr. Martin had completed fellowship training in physical medicine through the Mayo Foundation and University of Minnesota, and the physical therapy and occupational therapy educational programs initially operated under his direction.

The program was small. When Duane Schram, M.D., became its first physical medicine resident in 1947, the department had one chair and one resident.

Dr. Martin left KU in 1947 to become executive director of the newly established American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He was succeeded by Donald L. Rose, M.D., a founding member and diplomate of the new specialty board who would lead the KU department for the next 27 years.

Rehabilitation during the polio epidemic

One of the department's earliest challenges was also one of the defining public health crises of the era: poliomyelitis.

Major polio outbreaks struck communities across the country in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The national epidemic peaked in 1952, when more than 21,000 cases of paralytic polio were reported in the United States. Kansas was among the states affected, and the growing number of patients requiring extensive rehabilitation placed extraordinary demands on KU's young department.

Under Dr. Rose's leadership, the department obtained two iron lungs to support patients whose respiratory muscles had been paralyzed by the disease. Physical therapists provided labor-intensive treatments, including therapeutic exercise, range-of-motion work and hot packs. Historical accounts describe long hours and uncompensated overtime as the department struggled to meet the needs of patients during repeated outbreaks. Recruiting and retaining staff was difficult, and attempts to recruit volunteers were hampered in part by fear of contracting polio themselves.

The introduction of the first inactivated polio vaccine in 1955 ultimately transformed the fight against the disease. But the epidemic demonstrated the growing importance of rehabilitation medicine: survival from a serious illness or injury was only one part of recovery. Patients also needed specialized care to address its lasting effects on movement, function and independence.

Growing with the field

As rehabilitation medicine evolved, so did the department at KU Medical Center.

In 1951, the department established an electromyography section, using emerging technology to record electrical activity in nerves and muscles and improve the diagnosis of neurologic conditions. Electrodiagnostic medicine would become an important component of PM&R training and practice.

The department also developed its inpatient rehabilitation program under Dr. Rose. By 1953, KU had seven dedicated rehabilitation beds, an early step toward the much larger inpatient rehabilitation services that would follow.