Research in Rehabilitation Medicine

Research in rehabilitation medicine has been discussed on a number of occasions and in different journals during recent years. Worries about the situation of academic medicine in our discipline have been raised, but there have also been constructive suggestions. In his Walter J. Zeiter Lecture, DeLisa (1) points out that stronger research must be developed and also that basic science as well as clinical research have to be integrated in the academic base of our discipline. Derick Wade gave some interesting and somewhat provocative views on the priority of research in rehabilitation in a recent Editorial in Clinical Rehabilitation (2). He states that there is lack of consensus about priorities for research in rehabilitation and that research in rehabilitation must not be confused with research that is important to the clinical practice of rehabilitation, and should focus on the activities and processes that are central to rehabilitation.