Every year, 6-7 young doctors graduate from the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residency.
The Department’s staff deliver refresher (CPD) courses for doctors and nurses, students at the Faculties of Medicine, Odontology, Nursing, and Public Health of the LSMU Medical Academy, and students at the Faculty of Animal Sciences of the LSMU Veterinary Academy.
The Department of Rehabilitation supervises 10 postgraduate study programmes in the relevant areas of physiotherapy, assessment of functional condition as part of expert assessment of working capacity and disability, military functional condition assessment and correction thereof using non-drug techniques, speech correction foundations, general topics in rehabilitation, modern rehabilitation of neurology patients, introductory course of reflexotherapy, relevant topics in physical medicine, research-based application of physical factors in rehabilitation.
The Department has 3 student scientific clubs: Rehabilitation, Occupational Therapy, and Physiotherapy.
The Department’s staff develop teaching aids for students.
Teaching publications published in 2008: textbooks “Reabilitacija” (Rehabilitation), “Kineziterapija” (Physiotherapy), “Ergoterapija” (Occupational Therapy), course books “Šviesos taikymas pacientų ir neįgaliųjų reabilitacijai” (Light therapy in the rehabilitation of patients and persons with disability), “Kineziterapija vandenyje, sergant stuburo ligomis” (Physiotherapy in water for patients with spinal disorders), “Plaštakos sužalojimų gydymo ir reabilitacijos pagrindai” (Hand injury treatment and rehabilitation foundations), lecture proceedings “Ergoterapija, esant sensorinės integracijos sutrikimams” (Occupational therapy in sensory integration disorders), “Ultragarso taikymas fizinėje medicinoje” (Application of ultrasound in physical medicine); 2009: two teaching aids (developed together with the teaching staff at other divisions of the Faculty of Nursing); 2011: “Pragulos ir jų profilaktika” (Bedsores and bedsore prevention), “Širdies ligų gydymas (algoritmai ir schemos)” (Heart disease treatment (algorithms and schemes); “Vaikų cerebrinis paralyžius” (Paediatric cerebral palsy); 2012: “Reabilitacija po ortopedinių – traumatologinių operacijų” (Rehabilitation after trauma and orthopaedic surgery); 2014: “Reabilitacijos pagrindai” (Rehabilitation foundations), 2015: “Asmenų, patyrusių trauminį galvos smegenų sužalojimą” (Persons with traumatic brain injury); 2017: “Atraminio-judamojo aparato ligos: ortopedija traumatologija, plastinė rekonstrukcinė chirurgija, reabilitacija” (Musculoskeletal diseases: trauma and orthopaedics, plastic and reconstructive surgery, rehabilitation), compilation of scientific articles: “Menas.Terapija.Sveikata” (Art. Therapy. Health), “Biomechanikos praktikos darbai” (Practice of Biomechanics).
Research work ” Evaluation of patients’ biopsychosocial disorders and their correction in rehabilitation”, carried out by scientists of the Rehabilitation Clinic. The research activities on this topic are pursued by 5 doctoral students and staff members at the Department.
The Department of Rehabilitation, together with Kulautuva Hospital of Rehabilitation, Clinical Cardiology Laboratory of the Institute of Cardiology under the LSMU Medical Academy, Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, conducts research “The influence of regular exercise after aortic valve surgery on the heart and breathing function, left ventricle (LV) remodeling, change in the physical tolerance capacity, and quality of life“. Research activities involving intensive collaboration of the KTU research centres are conducted.
Research projects
ADVANTAGE (Managing Frailty. A comprehensive approach to promote a disability-free advanced age in Europe: the ADVANTAGE initiative) was a joint action programme for addressing frailty prevention in the elderly, funded under the European Union’s Third Health Programme (2014–2020, Horizon 2020). The project involved 40 different organisations from 22 EU countries. The ADVANTAGE project developed a common approach to the frailty prevention in health and social care services, promoting consensus among European Member States, and provided a common framework for the treatment of the elderly diagnosed with or at risk of developing frailty. For more details click here
Participation in the projects funded by the Research Council of Lithuania:
- project of the research teams of the Research Council of Lithuania “Automatic algorithms for atrial fibrillation risk prediction after acute myocardial infarction” together with the KTU researchers (No. MIP-15391, duratioṅ: 2015–2017);
- research work “High-Power Laser Impact Assessment in Clinically Deferred Chronic Constipation of Plantar Pancreas, Achilles Tendon” in 2015–2019. Our medical doctors at Kauno Klinikos were the first in Lithuania to use high-intensity laser therapy with a penetration of 12 cm into the tissues. High-intensity laser light stimulates tissue healing and biological processes of tissue regeneration.
- Our Clinical Department cooperates with the Bergen University College (Norway); Olsztyn University (Poland), University of Wisconsin-Madison (U.S.); PXL University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Belgium); Ulm University (Germany). Contract was signed with Jan Kochanowski University of Kielce (Poland).
- Erasmus+ agreements have been signed with universities in Spain, Austria, Croatia, Estonia, Oslo University College (Norway) and PXL University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Belgium).
- Relations with Kazakhstan are being developed, with the teachers representing our Department giving lectures on rehabilitation as visiting lecturers to healthcare professionals.
Membership in international organisations:
- European Network of Physiotherapy in Higher Education (ENPHE)
- European Network of Occupational Therapy in Higher Education (ENOTHE)
- European Consortium for Arts Therapies Education (ECARTE)