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Background: Discussion surrounds the publication The White Book on Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine in Europe as to whether the medical specialty termed "physical and rehabilitation medicine" is in fact a reality., Objective: To disclose previously undiscussed issues related to The White Book on Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine in Europe by juxtaposing its content with a body of work from a related healthcare approach termed "self-management education"., Methods: Inspired by discourse analysis and actor network theory, texts on both approaches were contrasted as having vocabularies of their own expressed under certain material conditions., Issues: Four issues arose: (i) the difference in illness trajectories between a sudden transition from an able to disabled person after a disease with acute onset and the indefinite and unpredictable course of a chronic disease; (ii) the different material and social set-up of clinical and community rehabilitation settings; (iii) the influence of these different implementation environments on goal-setting; and (iv) the relative neglect of social theory in physical and rehabilitation medicine., Conclusion: If a bio-psycho-social functional approach to patients with acute and chronic conditions is regarded as essential for the identity of physical and rehabilitation medicine, the discourse on chronic illness should be paid more explicit attention.

Health policy is shifting from professional to informal care. Studies have shown that informal caregivers provide an average of 55% of the needed care. The aim of this study was to get insight in the needs of the caregivers of patients with palliative cancer and how to address those needs with a support program. A questionnaire developed on the basis of 26 interviews was sent to 65 caregivers. The respondents indicate that they do need support, that communication is considered the most important factor followed by practical information about nursing skills, the caregivers' own health and finally social network. The respondents also expressed a need for support after the patient died during bereavement. Most respondents stated they wanted to participate in a support program at least partly together with the patient, at the patient's home and guided by a supporter who has experience with loss and is a professional.

The purpose of this study was to make a preliminary evaluation of the test-retest reliability of the Groningen Functional Capacity Test, a test developed to assess the functional capacity of people with a chronic disease and/or physical handicap and participating in a recreational sports stimulation program called SCALA, as a way to create homogeneous sport groups. The test includes motor actions typical for the SCALA sports program and has eight subtests, reaching, balancing, ball-catching, picking up objects, ball-kicking, ball-throwing accuracy, tennis, and walking. The subjects were 52 adults aged 46-71 years, randomly selected from the SCALA project. Intraclass correlations ranged from .96 to .58. Two subtests showed significant improvements on retest for walking (total sample and men) and picking up (total sample, men, and women). For most subtests, test-retest reliability was satisfactory and therefore worth being implemented in the SCALA program.