Help:Frequently Asked Questions

General FAQs

What is Physiopedia?

Physiopedia is a resource for rehabilitation professionals throughout the world, offering a place to contribute, share, and gain knowledge. The content of Physiopedia will be driven by experts and represent an evidence-based approach to patient care. As a worldwide site, Physiopedia works to unite physiotherapists and physical therapists from all reaches of our planet.

Developed in association with Webducate and leading physiotherapy and physical therapy institutions, Physiopedia will serve as an encyclopedia and learning tool about all physiotherapy matters for health profesionals, students and the public that will improve physiotherapy knowledge worldwide.

If you have physiotherapy expertise and would like to get involved in the editing of Physiopedia, request an account.

Who is Physiopedia intended for?

Physiopedia is intended for anyone with an interest in physiotherapy. For physiotherapists and physical therapists, it is a platform to share the most up-to-date physiotherapy and physical therapy knowledge. For educational institutions, it is an opportunity to get involved in the development of this valuable global collaborative effort.  For the general public, it’s a comprehensive educational resource that provides information related to physiotherapy.

Who is responsible for content on Physiopedia?

Editors with physiotherapy expertise are being called upon to add to different parts of this project. Additionally, initial content is being provided to Physiopedia so that Editors will have something to edit when the site first opens.

Who owns the content on Physiopedia?

Content on the Physiopedia site is freely available for reuse under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Who governs activity in Physiopedia?

Initially, the volunteer Physiopedia Project staff will oversee activity on the site. Over time, as the community of Editors grows, a hierarchy of volunteer administrators will take over the day-to-day governance of the site.

Who can contribute to the content on Physiopedia?

If you are a qualified physiotherapist or physical therapist, a student physiotherapist or physical therapist under the guidance of an approved educator or an approved expert clinician from an associated clinical speciality you can apply to become an Editor and make changes directly to Physiopedia articles.

If you have physiotherapy expertise and would like to get involved in the editing of Physiopedia, request an account.

Will Physiopedia expand to include languages other than English?

Possibly. If you can help with that, please contact Physiopedia here.

Do Editors receive payment for their involvement?

No. Physiopedia Editors are volunteers. Editors get involved for many different reasons including passion for their subject, the drive to contribute to an important resource of knowledge and the ability to increase their reputations in their field of expertise.

How will Physiopedia be supported?

To support the costs of operation in the future, non-invasive advertising will be shown on the Physiopedia website.

At presePhysiopedia is funded and managed by Webducate, an e-learning company in the UK.

Content FAQs

How reliable is the content on Physiopedia?

The seed content available on Physiopedia at launch is up to date, accurate, and provided by reputable sources. After the official launch in 2009, once Editors start making edits and adding new pages to the initial content, it is possible, and even likely that there will be mistakes and language that is unclear. This is the nature of a collaborative wiki.

It is anticipated that hundreds of Editors will soon be reading the articles and monitoring changes using the Recent Changes page. The model, therefore, is that incorrect information will be corrected quickly, and the overall accuracy of Physiopedia will always be improving.

Thus, if you see information you think is wrong, it is in your power to correct it. Please apply to become a Editor and make the change yourself, or email Physiopedia and it will be reviewed by an approved Editor and possibly changed.

The content on, or accessible through, Physiopedia is for informational purposes only. Physiopedia is in no way a substitute for professional advice or expert medical services from a qualified healthcare provider. Further, Physiopedia does not recommend or endorse any treatment, institution, professional, physician, product, procedure or other information that may be mentioned on Physiopedia.

How is previously copyrighted information now available?

In the spirit of building this collaborative resource, forward thinking institutions have contributed initial content to the main wiki pages and released that content from copyright restrictions so that it can be freely editable by the Physiopedia community of Editors. Organisations are honored for their contributions on the Acknowledgements page. An organisation’s content will be absorbed into the general body of Physiopedia content, and over the course of several months or years, may become unrecognisable in comparison to its original form. Organisations are not required to pay Physiopedia to participate, and Physiopedia offers no monetary compensation to any organisation for participation.

If you are an organisation with physiotherapy content that you would like to donate to Physiopedia, contact us. Doing so will secure your organisation a place on the Acknowledgements page and may entitle you to advertising space.

How often are Physiopedia pages updated?

Given the collaborative, volunteer nature of Physiopedia, there is no schedule for changes and improvements to the pages. As Editors have time, have access to more information, or as evidence emerges, new pages will be created and existing pages will be updated. Eventually, hundreds of people will be editing Physiopedia, and the overall accuracy and comprehensiveness of the site will be improving on a daily basis.

Why can’t I edit articles anonymously on Physiopedia?

To help minimize inaccuracies and abuse, individuals who want to edit articles must first be approved by the Physiopedia community. Viewers of Physiopedia -- meaning people who are using the information on Physiopedia and not contributing – will not need to log in and their identities will never be exposed publicly by visiting the website. For more see the Physiopedia Privacy Policy.

How technical will the language on Physiopedia become?

The editorial aim is to keep the main pages understandable by someone who reads at professional physiotherapy or physical therapist level. The information on those pages should be structured to answer the most common questions physiotherapists have about a topic. Each page should be laid out so that all of the information on a topic is available on one page in an easy to read format.

How is Physiopedia different from other health sites on the Internet?

Physiopedia is a collaborative body of work where content is written, edited and constantly re-edited by the Physiopedia community of Editors. It’s not licensed from third parties, and the content is not static, but rather, constantly changing and growing.  Physiopedia content is freely usable under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) license and people are encouraged to discover ways to use this valuable resource.

How is Physiopedia different from Wikipedia?

The founders and editors of Wikipedia, more than anyone, demonstrated the power of collaborative communities to produce a complex information resource. There are unique requirements when dealing with health and medical information and distinct differences between the two sites. They are:

• Physiopedia is focused 100% on physiotherapy knowledge, whereas less than 2% of Wikipedia’s content is related to health and medicine.
• The Physiopedia website and initial content has been developed in association with and contributions from top institutions and individuals within the physiotherapy world.
• Physiopedia has an extensive professional networking infrastructure for the clinicians to use in any way they see fit, including collaborating on editing content on the site. In other words, there are clear professional benefits for individuals with the specialised knowledge needed to create Physiopedia content to come to the site and return regularly, regardless of their level of contribution.
  

How can I contact Physiopedia?

For questions not answered here or elsewhere on the site, you can email here.

Help FAQs

I need help editing Physiopedia where should I look?

You should first go to the Help page to find an answer to your question.  If this does not answer your question try our Help FAQs.  If you do not find the answer to your question here you should add your question to the Talk page that is associated with the Help page.