900 Section - Rehabilitation Medicine in Undergraduate Medicine – a systematic narrative literature review

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

6:00 PM - 7:30 PM PT

Presenting Author/Autor expositor(s)

MH

Madeline L. Hobbs, MD

Foundation year 2 doctor
Nottingham University Hospitals
Ashbourne, England, United Kingdom
LG

Laveinia B. Godfrey, MBBS

Foundation Year 2 Doctor
NHS
Surbiton, England, United Kingdom

Co-Author/Coautor(s)

JH

Javvad Haider, MD

Consultant in Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine
National Rehabilitation Center
Nottingham, England, United Kingdom

Objectives : Rehabilitation medicine is a growing field in medicine, yet remains underrepresented in undergraduate medical education. This literature review aimed to assess the presence and quality of rehabilitation medicine education across the world in existing literature.

Design: Appropriate articles were then extracted using OVID and analysed for common themes and lessons to be learned. These were then filtered using our inclusion screening tool, PRISMA. The initial search showed sixty-two results which was then reduced to thirty-two, removing duplicate records. We narrowed this down by only focusing on reports published after 2005, were available in full text, and those in written or were formally translated to/published in English. This ensured that only current and accessible literature was looked at. We then further filtered out those which had different phenomena of interest; leaving only articles which focused purely on our research question; publications which explored undergraduate education of medical students in Rehabilitation Medicine specifically, leaving seven results.

Results: The analysis found that rehabilitation medicine remains underrepresented with education inconsistent. The literature also showed that exposure to rehabilitation medicine improved knowledge, attitude and confidence of undergraduate medical students in rehabilitation medicine and caring for patients.

Conclusion: Overall, the literature analysed highlights that further research and formal education in rehabilitation medicine is needed at an undergraduate level, especially in the UK. It should be carefully integrated into already busy medical syllabus using a spiral curriculum which allows continuous development, delivered in small groups for better participation, hands-on skill-based teaching and have formal assessment in the form of written and OSCEs.