A Date of Our Own: November 13 as Bangladesh's National Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Day
Year: 2026
Type: editorial
Abstract: On November 13, 2025, the Bangladesh Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (BSPMR), the country's national professional body for the specialty, organized the first National Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PMR) Day in Bangladesh. The date was fixed to align with the International Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine Day. Earlier observances, held in 2017 and 2018 and revived in 2024 after a lapse of several years, followed the American Physiatry Day, whose date shifted annually. This editorial describes BSPMR's adoption of November 13 for a national PMR observance and considers how a fixed annual date may support sustained advocacy. The case rests on a mismatch between need and provision: a rising burden of disability and population ageing, set against a specialist workforce of fewer than two physiatrists per million people, concentrated largely in Dhaka Division. We propose that future observances be used to advance five policy and service-delivery priorities: integrating rehabilitation into undergraduate medical education, extending PMR services to district-level hospitals and filling posts already sanctioned there, including rehabilitation indicators in national health information systems, securing formal state recognition of the day, and sustaining public messaging on disability prevention.
Source: Cureus
Institution: Bangladesh Medical University
Language: English
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7214090210