Strengthening Rehabilitation Globally: International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM) Strategy to Action Synopsis of the ISPRM President’s Cabinet Strategy Planning Workshop

Fary Khan; Bhasker Amatya; Gaj Panagoda; Walter Frontera; Francesca Gimigliano; Levent Özçakar; Vu Nguyen; Steven J Faux; Jorge Lains; Marta Imamura; Gerard E. Francisco; Leonard SW Li; Jianan Li; Linamara R Battistella; Joel A DeLisa; John Melvin; on behalf of the ISPRM 2026 PC Meeting Collaborators (Group authorship)

doi:10.5606/archisprm.2026.92

Fary Khan¹, Bhasker Amatya¹, Gaj Panagoda², Walter Frontera³, Francesca Gimigliano⁴, Levent Özçakar⁵, Vu Nguyen⁶, Steven J Faux⁷, Jorge Lains⁸, Marta Imamura⁹, Gerard E. Francisco¹⁰, Leonard SW Li¹¹, Jianan Li¹², Linamara R Battistella⁹, Joel A DeLisa¹³, John Melvin¹⁴, on behalf of the ISPRM 2026 PC Meeting Collaborators (Group authorship)

¹Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Qatar Rehabilitation Institute, Doha, Qatar

²School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

³Department of Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation, and Sports Medicine, Department of Physiology, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, Puerto Rico

⁴Department of Mental and Physical Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Naples, Italy

⁵Department of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, Hacettepe University Medical School, Ankara, Türkiye

⁶Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Heersink School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, USA

⁷Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, St Vincent’s Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

⁸Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and Rovisco Pais Hospital, ULS Coimbra, and Univ Coimbra, Faculty of Medicine, Portugal

⁹Departamento de Medicina Legal, Bioetica, Medicina do Trabalho e Medicina Fisica e Reabilitacao, Faculdade de Medicina HCFMUSP, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil

¹⁰Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Texas Health Science Center, McGovern Medical School, Houston (Texas), USA

¹¹Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, China

¹²Center of Rehabilitation Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.

¹³Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and Elton S. Floyd College of Medicine-Washington State University, New Jersey, USA

¹⁴Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Keywords: Advocacy, communication, education, leadership, Physical and rehabilitation medicine, research.

Abstract

The President’s Cabinet and panel of Past Presidents of the International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM) convened a strategy session following the World Congress 2026 in Vancouver, Canada. Participants examined challenges and future strategic directions across the four ISPRM pillars: Advocacy, Communication, Education and Research, and Operations and Fiscal Health, using participatory Problem and Objective Tree Analysis methodology. This article provides an analysis of the strategy session and highlights the future trajectory of ISPRM and its role within the broader rehabilitation landscape.
Participants identified a common strategic priority: strengthening regional and national society capacity whilst maintaining a coherent global framework, across all four pillars. For ‘Advocacy’, the emphasis was on demonstration of economic and societal value of rehabilitation; ‘Communication’ emphasized multilingual engagement and stronger relationship with regional and national societies; ‘Education and Research’ highlight the need for globally accessible evidence-generation and knowledge-sharing platforms; and ‘Operations and Fiscal health’ concentrated on creating sustainable governance and finance mechanisms.
The discussion aligns closely with contemporary global rehabilitation initiatives, including World Health Organization (WHO) Rehabilitation 2030, the World Health Assembly resolution (WHA76.6) on ‘Strengthening Rehabilitation in Health Systems’, and the World Rehabilitation Alliance (WRA). The strategy session represents an important transition from aspirational goals toward measurable organizational transformation and provides a roadmap for positioning ISPRM as a leading global advocate, knowledge-broker, and catalyst for rehabilitation medicine development worldwide. Successful implementation of the strategies will depend on leadership accountability, prioritization of foundational activities, sustainable finance, and meaningful regional and national empowerment.

This article is simultaneously co-published in the Archives of ISPRM and the European Journal of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (EJPRM), with the approval of the authors and both journals.
Citation: Khan F, Amatya B, Panagoda G, Frontera W, Gimigliano F, Özçakar L, et al. Strengthening Rehabilitation Globally: International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM) Strategy to Action Synopsis of the ISPRM President’s Cabinet Strategy Planning Workshop . Arch ISPRM 2026;1(3):199-213. https://doi.org/10.5606/archisprm.2026.92.