A new discipline in medicine, physiatry: physical medicine and rehabilitation

Physiatry is a relatively new area of medicine worldwide and continues to evolve to meet the medical needs of patients. The fundamental goal of Rehabilitation Medicine is functional performance and quality of life. Lord Viscount Tedder stated, "that the greatest field of the specialty lay in the restoration of individuals to full physical fitness, for he said, "life was not merely to be alive, but to be well". One of the highest awards in the AAPMR is the Frank H Krusen Award, and one of the awardees, Henry Betts and Joel Press, the founder of the Spine and Sports Rehabilitation Center at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, say, "Medicine adds years to people's life, Physiatry adds quality to those years."