The interview
Bogdan-Andrei Vereș - Romania
What is your profession:
I am a physiotherapist, PhD student and associated professor at Babeș-Bolyai University, at Physical Education and Sport Faculty, Physiotherapy Department.
How is the rehabilitation treatment of spine diseases managed in your country?
In Romania, there are few ways that public health address spine diseases rehabilitation. There is a public hospital that diagnoses the pathology, and then there are 3 ways that people can follow:
- Public rehabilitation hospitals that are using a 2 weeks protocol to rehabilitate any pathology.
- Private hospitals work in a collaborative way with medical state funds.
- Private hospitals or clinics.
In all ways, in most cases, the pathology is treated with a multidisciplinary approach, based on the institution's capabilities.
Scoliosis: how is it treated?
The orthopaedic doctor or a pediatric doctor usually diagnoses a child with scoliosis after the X-ray. After that, some of them recommend a brace, some of them recommend physiotherapy, some of them recommend both, but some of them ignore the pathology.
When patients get in touch with physiotherapy they usually are trained in a specific therapy for scoliosis approach (like Schroth), but there are still therapists who are approaching scoliosis in a 2 dimension way.
There is no screening at a national level, so the children reach the physician too late when they discover a hump or some asymmetry at the trunk level. In Romania surgical approach to scoliosis is made, but only after 50 or more degrees.
What would you like to improve on the clinical practice currently followed in your country?
I would really like that all the medical staff to start working based on evidence. In Romania, we lack evidence-based medicine and we should start focusing on that.
For me, the evidence-based work policy is what I hope I can bring to my colleagues and even to patients. If everyone works based on the evidence then we have a common knowledge not just what we believe without any proof. Busting myth as ”I can cure scoliosis” is one of my main goals and this course really gave me a lot of proof that I can use against traditional beliefs about scoliosis. In Romania, we have a lot more ahead in terms of actual knowledge about scoliosis. The one that benefits the most after our practice is our patients. We need to know more for a better medical future.
