Physical Medicine Therapies for Human Health, Function, and Quality of Life
A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032). This special issue belongs to the section "Healthcare Quality, Patient Safety, and Self-care Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 9 January 2027 | Viewed by 1342
Editors
2. Collegium Medicum, Faculty of Health Sciences, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University, 30-705 Kraków, Poland
Interests: transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS); electrotherapy and neuromodulation; physical medicine and physical modalities; pain sensitivity and pain management; sensory processing and sensory thresholds; functional outcomes and quality of life; vibration therapy/whole-body vibration; individualized therapy and parameter optimization
Interests: electrotherapy; taste; vibration; smell; food preferences; body composition and dietary factors; skin; Interdisciplinary; light therapy; sport and physiology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Contemporary physical medicine is an integral part of evidence-based medicine, grounded in high-quality clinical research. It encompasses a wide spectrum of specialized therapies that employ physical agents, including electrotherapy, phototherapy, ultrasound, and vibrotherapy. These modalities modulate pain processing, support tissue healing processes, and influence neuromuscular activity, therefore promoting the restoration of physical function across a wide range of clinical conditions.
Properly planned and methodically applied physical medicine procedures, individualized for each patient, play a crucial role in the comprehensive rehabilitation process. Achieving such outcomes requires precise selection and adjustment of therapy parameters, taking into account clinical presentation, stimulus tolerance, and therapeutic goals. As a result, physical medicine therapies can lead to a clinically meaningful improvement in patient functioning, an increase in activity, and enhanced participation in daily life, as well as beneficial changes in patients’ quality of life.
Despite its well-documented potential, physical medicine still tends to be underestimated in many healthcare systems and is often regarded as an adjunctive treatment rather than an integral component of therapeutic management. This Special Issue will highlight clinical value and innovation in the field of physical medicine by bringing together studies that evaluate therapeutic protocols, clinical outcomes, and their impact on patients’ health, functioning, and quality of life.
For this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Physical medicine therapies for acute and chronic pain;
- Electrotherapy and neuromodulation, including transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), high-voltage stimulation (HVS), and related techniques;
- TENS-based analgesia: protocols and clinical outcomes;
- Clinical applications of electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) for muscle performance, function, and recovery;
- Phototherapy (e.g., laser therapy);
- Ultrasound therapy and combined physical modalities (e.g., simultaneous application of ultrasound and electrical stimulation);
- Vibration therapy and deep oscillation;
- Parameter-driven and protocol-optimized approaches in physical medicine;
- Individualized, patient-centered applications of physical medicine therapies;
- Effects of physical medicine therapies on quality of life;
- Safety, tolerability, and clinical decision-making in physical medicine;
- Integration of physical medicine into comprehensive rehabilitation programs.
I look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Joanna Witkoś
Dr. Magdalena Hartman-Petrycka
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- physical medicine
- therapeutic modalities
- electrotherapy (TENS and related techniques)
- phototherapy/laser therapy
- ultrasound therapy
- vibration therapy/deep oscillation
- pain management with physical medicine therapies
- functional recovery
- quality of life (QoL)
- rehabilitation
- spa therapy
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