A European network of documentation and information in rehabilitation: its necessity and concept

Both, the practical rehabilitation process and rehabilitation as a field of theory, research and training, can be realized and promoted only through close communication of professionals from various disciplines and levels in different countries. An interdisciplinary and international network of documentation and information is a prerequisite to such cooperation. Differentiated assessment, qualitative analysis and filtering, classified storing and aggressive and multivariate dissemination of information would be the major functions of the network. Both specialists from the various scientific disciplines of rehabilitation and documentation and information specialists would have to fulfill these functions. A corresponding European network should be brought about by close cooperation of national centers for documentation in rehabilitation, of centers specializing in various basic disciplines and different kinds of disabilities, and a European Center for Documentation and Information in Rehabilitation, which would centrally store and disseminate information both from the more specialized centers in Europe, and from corresponding centers in other continents. The necessary agreements between centers in various countries and continents should be brought about with the help and under the auspices of an international organization, like Rehabilitation International.