Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation is concerned with function: what a patient can do, what has changed, and what can be restored. PM&R physicians treat the musculoskeletal and neurological conditions that limit daily activity.
PM&R begins from a different question than most specialties. Rather than asking only what the diagnosis is, it asks what the impairment costs the patient in daily life — at work, at home, in movement — and what can realistically be recovered.
The discipline is largely non-surgical. Evaluation, targeted therapy, and directed exercise are the primary tools, together with interventional pain management where appropriate. Where surgery is indicated, PM&R often has a role before and after it.
Rehabilitation after illness is as much a part of the field as rehabilitation after injury. Deconditioning following cancer treatment, cardiac events, or extended illness responds to structured, medically supervised recovery.
Conditions commonly evaluated
- Back and neck pain, including radicular pain
- Joint, tendon, and soft-tissue injury
- Osteoarthritis and degenerative joint conditions
- Postoperative rehabilitation
- Stroke and neurological rehabilitation
- Peripheral nerve injury and neuropathy
- Sports and overuse injury
- Deconditioning following illness or cancer treatment
Care provided
- Functional assessment and diagnosis of impairment
- Non-surgical management of musculoskeletal conditions
- Rehabilitation planning and directed exercise prescription
- Electrodiagnostic evaluation where indicated
- Interventional pain management
- Return-to-work and return-to-activity planning
At a first visit
- A first visit centers on a functional history: what you can no longer do, when it changed, and what makes it better or worse.
- Wear or bring clothing that allows examination and movement of the affected area.
- Bring prior imaging, operative reports, and any previous therapy notes — including what has already been tried and whether it helped.
Working with other departments
PM&R works with internal medicine on chronic pain and mobility, with medical oncology on recovery during and after treatment, and with cardiology on activity tolerance. Rehabilitation plans are written to be reviewed, not issued once.