Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine 51-11 | Page 4

50 years J Rehabil Med 2019; 51: 818–820 SPECIAL ISSUE REPORT JRM 1969–2019 THE START OF SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF REHABILITATION MEDICINE: WITH ASPECTS ON THE CONTENT OF THE FIRST FOUR VOLUMES AND ITS DEVELOPMENT Gunnar GRIMBY, MD, PhD, FRCP From the Research group in Rehabilitation Medicine, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected] T he decision to set up the Scandinavian Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine (SJRM) was taken in 1967 at the 2 nd Scandinavian Congress on Medical Rehabilitation, in Stockholm. The journal was pro- posed by Professor Olle Höök who the previous year had been appointed as the first Swedish Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine in Göteborg, after having been a neurologist in Stockholm and there started the first spinal cord unit in Sweden. The motivation to set up a Scandinavian journal, explained in the introductory notes (1), was based on the many similarities in social and economic deve- lopment in the Scandinavian countries. At that time rehabilitation had been established in the Scandinavian countries, although with different names and profiles. An Editorial Board was chosen, consisting of 9 mem- bers, all from the 5 Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden). There were 2 Assistant Editors: Lars-Göran Ottosson and Harald Sanne, both from Sweden. In a paper on Medical Rehabilitation in the first issue in 1969 (2), Olle Höök defined the goal of rehabilitation as: to restore patients to physical and mental health so far as possible, and to assist them to regain their optimal activity and readjust themselves to their envi- ronment. He explained the prerequisites for creation of a good medical rehabilitation service (as it was called at that time). He also highlighted the need for a further increase in rehabilitation staff, with increased training of occupational therapists and physiotherapists. The current paper presents a general overview of the content of the first 4 volumes of SJRM in compa- rison with the most recent 2 volumes of its successor, the Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine (JRM). A description of the longer-term development of JRM, in particular, is given in my presentation at the 50 th anniversary of SJRM-JRM (3). CONTENT OF THE FIRST FOUR VOLUMES The first issue of SJRM published articles from the 2 nd Scandinavian Congress on Medical Rehabilitation. The congress had 2 main themes: “Physical training of the disabled” and “Medical aspects of assessment of working ability”. Articles by Bäcklund & Nordgren, on physical work capacity and muscular strength in patients undergoing rehabilitation (4), and by Grimby, Häggendal & Sanne (5), on physical work capacity using bicycle tests at a vocational assessment unit, demonstrated information from the use of such measu- rements. Early collaborations with clinical physiology and clinical neurophysiology are illustrated in several papers in the first 4 volumes. The use of physical training before gallstone ope- ration was reported by Adolfsson (6), who showed that, from a general clinical viewpoint, patients who performed pre-operative exercise were less affected by the surgical trauma and had a shorter convalescence than a control group. This approach was rather new at that time, at least in Scandinavia. A follow-up of subjects’ vocational work capacity after 10 years was reported for the period 1957–1959 from the National Institute for the Assessment of Work Capacity of the Handicapped by Cronholm, Hådell & Lundgren (7). The prognostic evaluation at admission appeared to be mainly correct. Attitudes hampering rehabilitation were more common among those with low income, and a slow working pace during the period of vocational assessment appeared to be an unfavourable prognostic factor. The first issue also published 2 articles on muscle vibrator therapy (8, 9). An international calendar of forthcoming congresses, conferences and symposia published in the first issue has become a constant feature of the journal to date. Issues 2–3 of the second volume of SJRM included articles from the third scientific meeting of the Council in Rehabilitation of the International Society of Car- diology held 1970 in Cambridge, UK (10). The theme of that meeting, “Psychological Aspects of Cardiac Rehabilitation”, revealed a range of rehabilitation problems that involved psychological factors. It is interesting to note that rehabilitation medicine was active in initiating cardiac rehabilitation programmes in Sweden at that time, as well as in other Scandinavian countries. Although not specifically involved in cardio- logy, Olle Höök considered cardiac rehabilitation an important part of medical rehabilitation, and favoured e.g. the appointment of a consultant with that particular responsibility at the hospital department in Göteborg. In issues 1–2 of the third volume of SJRM, from 1971, a special section was devoted to physical training and its physiological background, as well as its use in This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license. www.medicaljournals.se/jrm doi: 10.2340/16501977-2618 Journal Compilation © 2019 Foundation of Rehabilitation Information. ISSN 1650-1977