he School and Graduate Institute of Physical Therapy of National Taiwan University (NTU-PT) was founded in 1967 as the first bachelor program of physical therapy in Taiwan. Over the past four decades, the faculty members, students, and alumni of the NTU-PT have dedicated themselves in every aspect to promote the development of physical therapy (PT) profession in Taiwan.
In the aspect of education, NTU-PT has installed the first bachelor, master, and doctoral PT programs, and has assisted in the establishment of several PT schools in Taiwan. It will launch the advanced doctor of PT (DPT) program in 2013 as a preceding step to the future entry-level DPT program. This is considered the pioneer clinical education program in Asia.
NTU-PT has dedicated to achieve excellence in research. The faculty members have collaborated with multi-disciplinary experts to develop qualitative and quantitative assessments for clinical use, as well as to investigate the effectiveness of PT intervention for clinical and subclinical populations. The faculty members and students have actively participated in academic conferences and have published extensively in prestigious journals.
NTU-PT has strived to enhance the autonomy of physical therapists in clinical practice. There are two clinical sites at the National Taiwan University Hospital including: the Physical Therapy Division of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department (NTUH-PMR) and the Physical Therapy Center (PTC). These two clinical affiliations provide complementary clinical internship training to our undergraduate and graduate students. Aging society, low fertility, inactivity, non-infectious diseases and inequality of healthcare resources are important health issues in the 21th century that will lead to a substantial increase in the demand and the quality of PT services. The World Confederation for Physical Therapy has advocated that the new scope of PT will consist of health promotion, disease prevention, impairment treatment, and disability rehabilitation. The faculty members, students, and alumni of NTU-PT are dedicated to work in collaboration to redirect the content and focus of our education to meet these challenges!