Evaluation of the topic lists used in two world Congresses (2015 and 2016) in Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine.

BACKGROUND: Evaluation of the initial list of proposed abstract topics for Congresses of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM) was needed in order to ensure its feasibility for use in future congress announcements and invitations for abstract submission.

METHODS: The initial proposals were based on 5 main areas of PRM research: biosciences in rehabilitation, biomedical rehabilitation sciences and engineering, clinical PRM sciences, integrative rehabilitation sciences, and human functioning sciences. This list became a model for structuring the abstracts for the 9th and 10th World Congresses of PRM, held in Berlin, Germany (2015) and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2016), respectively. The next step was to evaluate the implementation of this model in both congresses.

RESULTS: It was found that the 5 main research areas were still used as the main principles (chapters) in which to organize the abstracts. However, some modifications have been made to cover topics that were not included in the initial proposal.

CONCLUSION: A more comprehensive list of topics has been developed, not only for topic list announcements, but also for the structuring and classification of abstracts for future international, regional or national PRM congresses.