Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapy- history, development and future opportunities

Manual therapy is among the oldest interventions in medicine with records of its use dating back over 4,000 years. Although currently manual therapy is a well-established part of physiotherapy practice around the world, few therapists are aware that it has been a continuous and inextricable part of the physiotherapy scope of practice dating back at least as far as 1813 AD, with noted contributions to the field by our professional colleagues for now almost two centuries. This paper intends to acquaint the reader with the definition, history and development of orthopaedic manual physical therapy (OMPT) with specific attention to the paradigm shift within OMPT from an authority-based to an evidence-based and now an evidence-informed paradigm. The historical paper concludes with suggestions for the role the Journal of Physical Therapy might play in the ongoing development of OMPT.