Position Statemement
Nathan was a candidate for the position of Vice president on the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Manual and Musculoskeletal Physical Therapists (IFOMPT).
The election took place in person during the IFOMPT General Meeting in Basel, Switzerland in July 2024. At this meeting, Nathan was elected as the Vice President of IFOMPT.
POSITION STATEMENT:
We have a wonderful profession. Patients greatly appreciate and value our evidence-based practice. I am proud to be part of the IFOMPT family and I am happy that I have had the opportunity to contribute to the development of IFOMPT and manual therapy / orthopaedic manual physiotherapy over the past several years.
During the 50 years of its existence, IFOMPT has developed into the professional organisation that it is today – thanks to the many motivated people who invested their time, effort, and talents. Since 2016, Member Organisations (MOs) have been more involved and have gained more influence over the development of IFOMPT. However, I believe that in the past few years, not much improvement has been made regarding the involvement of MOs. Therefore, if I am elected Vice President of IFOMPT, one of my major goals will be to maximise the involvement of the MOs, Associate Member Organisations (AMOs), and Registered Interest Groups (RIGs) within IFOMPT and to facilitate further cooperation between them. Together, we can build a more inclusive, diverse IFOMPT to move the organisation forward and make a real difference.
I am the current chair of the IFOMPT Advisory Group on Finance which, in recent years, has been working on creating a more solid financial basis for IFOMPT. We also proposed the new IFOMPT subscription fee model, which the MOs welcomed. Continuing to develop and grow as a professional organisation demands a strong financial basis. We need to increase our income stream, prioritise our objectives and projects, carefully plan our annual budget and monitor our expenditures. We should also look at the IFOMPT Conference model given that IFOMPT is currently dependent on the revenue the conference generates, but has little influence on how it is organised and its success.
Of course, it is not all about finances. We should spearhead the further development and promotion of orthopaedic manual physiotherapy and work hard to become the global leader in the musculoskeletal domain. We should be visible to all our stakeholders and cooperate with them, and let the world know how we, as manual physiotherapy specialists, can help alleviate the global burden of musculoskeletal conditions. We should embrace innovation, focus on disseminating knowledge and continue to support RIGs in becoming AMOs/MOs.
I am a strategic thinker who is ambitious and innovative. I am a team player, but I also enjoy taking the lead. I can bring practitioners, educators, researchers and policymakers together and build bridges. I have excellent organisational skills. I am an effective communicator and have a broad network in the fields of physiotherapy and orthopaedic manual physiotherapy. I am an experienced board member and understand that although IFOMPT needs to be future-proof for the next 50 years, we should not forget our history and the current strengths of our organisation and profession.
I would be honoured to be IFOMPT’s new Vice President and will work with all MOs, AMOs, and RIGs on the further development of IFOMPT and the orthopaedic manual physiotherapy profession worldwide.
