REPRESENTS PRIVATE PHYSIOTHERAPY PRACTICE AT AN INTERNATIONAL LEVEL
CONNECT WITH OUR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
President
Wilma Erasmus
As a physiotherapy practice owner since 1987, the business of private physiotherapy is close to my heart and one of the driving forces of my involvement in the South African Society of Physiotherapy (SASP) since 1995 and IPPTA since 2005. As an active working private physiotherapist, I am at the coalface of the opportunities and challenges which the members, that the SASP and IPPTA represent, experience every day.
My involvement in IPPTA since 2005 has opened my eyes to the challenges that face an international organization with a private practice membership who has both unique and similar issues and problems.
As President of IPPTA my focus is:
- Strategic direction for IPPTA, the aim would be to have a strategic plan with unified goals and timeframes that would enhance IPPTA, build capacity and ensure financial stability within IPPTA.
- Growth within IPPTA membership. This will be done by creating added value and support for the existing member organizations (MO) and recruitment, support and mentoring of new MO’s.
- Empowerment of IPPTA executive committee and MO’s with business and leadership tools to enable them to transfer those skills to improve their own organizations and businesses.
With the assistance of an enthusiastic dynamic executive committee and the active participation of members of IPPTA, I am of the opinion that we do have the experience, insight and knowledge to achieve these.
“The purpose of leadership is to change the world around you in the name of your values, so you can live those values more fully.” ― Stan Slap
Vice-President
Pam Simpson
Having completed my 4-year term of office as Physio First Chairman at the same time as being elected to the IPPTA executive I feel this is exactly the right time to give my time and energy to our international organisation which has recently become more focussed in our strategic direction.
The world over we are having to demonstrate the evidenced based value of private physiotherapy and by working together our member countries are aiming to share evidence and strategies and to provide a common voice.
During my time at Physio First I led the rebranding of our organisation and the development of a quality assured kitemark for members based on actual patient outcomes, measured and awarded by a third-party academic institution. This was as a result of many years of standardised data collection.
Data collection comes in many forms with many tools and ways of analysis and our IPPTA member organisations have much to gain from sharing and learning from both the successes and the experienced pitfalls of all member countries.
I am passionate about the ability to demonstrate value and will work together with the rest of our Executive under the leadership of Wilma to promote, encourage, assist and learn from our colleagues around the world. These are exciting times and I am proud to be part of them.
treasurer
Tim Nemeth
Since Amsterdam 2011, I have been the Belgian delegate to the IPPTA regional and general meetings. I have come to appreciate and better understand the importance of an organization such as IPPTA. Especially in the role of the member organization representative of a country, where liberal foundations of private physiotherapy practice are merely surfacing. In the previous years I have met a group of hard-working friends who always advocate for physiotherapy business. Together we benefit from the joint meetings and share with each other the good and the yet to improve matters in the national frameworks.
My efforts for IPPTA are concentrating on the necessary controlled growth within the available budget. Only a worldwide cooperation of physiotherapy private practitioner’s organizations gives us the empowerment of acting as the representing organization within World Physiotherapy. Furthermore, I am focusing on a direct and a quick communication platform for the member organization representatives, as sharing information is one of the IPPTA main goals. Long term and ongoing projects are the basis of a continuing development within the organization, but on the spot, information could well be very important in negotiations with other stakeholders in the national legal frameworks of our profession. Therefore, I believe that a sensible and wise use of always evolving modern social media and communication forms is something to keep up with. A decade ago, I stated in Amsterdam that as the only worldwide non clinical organization for private physiotherapist organizations we do have an increasing important value in this global economic challenging time. Today I strongly believe this is still valid. Whether your country is a pioneer in setting standards for physiotherapy or at this moment mostly benefits from wheels already invented, (net)working together should raise standards for physiotherapy for all members.
As the IPPTA Treasurer, together with the entire Executive Committee, I will watch over the opportunities of our organization within the budgetary framework.
Member Organisation Representative
Marc Chevalier
In 2009, I joined for the first time the IPP(T)A Regional Meeting in Cape Town as the Swiss representative. Since then I participated five times. It has always been a great pleasure and a major source of inspiration.
Thanks to the exchange with representatives from other nations I recognized, despite diverse health care systems and different cultures, all the problems are more or less the same. However, the frame conditions of these problems are not alike. The same problem is named variously in different health care systems. Health is man’s most valuable asset! This is probably why I am pretty keen on working as a physio- therapist. I appreciate also the various facets of our job. We have to focus on our patients without losing sight of the aspects beyond the walls of our practice. How health care systems evolve is crucial. At this point IPPTA provides a valuable source of support. We do not have to reinvent the wheel anew. Learning from each other is fundamental, if we want to make strategic decisions efficiently. In my opinion, one major point is building bridges between the cultures. Only together we will succeed. On one hand, success does always have to be measured by patient satisfaction. On the other hand, all solutions must be economically. A solution we can’t afford is no solution. The last IPPTA Regional Meeting in Auckland motivated me to apply for a position in the Executive Committee (EC). I will make use of my strengths to foster the development of IPPTA. As an owner of several private practices, I am used to combine visionary thinking, down to earth solutions and fast implementation of ideas.
Business Development Executive
Margaret Revie
I served as the IPPTA Secretary for eight years and in the last two years of my term in office I developed commercial partnerships with companies associated with physical therapy around the world. When I stepped down from secretary. I took on the role of business development executive officer full time as a co-opted member of the executive committee.
Within IPPTA, I see a role for promoting and actively assisting member countries to gather data which will assist each other in promoting the business of private physical therapy in our member countries. The sharing of knowledge and good practice and disseminating it to member countries and the wider world of physiotherapy can only help us all. As I have been in private practice for many years, I know the value of having a good business sense and will continue to help the executive promote the gathering of data to help our members understand the diversity that exists within each country and to learn from each other.
I have extensive knowledge of professional practice, education, regulation and research in the various roles I have undertaken within the profession in the UK and bring this expertise to the work of the executive committee of IPPTA. Strategic planning is seen as essential within professional organisations and to work effectively across different countries and cultures, IPPTA has to continue to forward plan for the future.
I feel that my skills and experience of working at a strategic level within my own member organisations in the UK are of benefit to aid the organisation in achieving this. In my new role as the business development executive I will help IPPTA to maintain it’s ability to fulfil its objectives financially by seeking sponsorship from companies aligned with our values.
