About Our College
Physical Medicine in Australia was formally established as the Australian College of Physical Medicine in 1989 as a "not for profit" postgraduate medical education organisation. It developed in response to a need recognised by a group of experienced general practitioners. These doctors found that there was a large proportion of primary care patients suffering from soft tissue musculoskeletal dysfunction and associated pain. They found that general practice lacked the expertise to assess and treat these diverse conditions. They found that soft tissue musculoskeletal dysfunction was only a very small part of the area of knowledge covered by orthopaedic surgical colleagues and rheumatologists, the latter dealing mainly with connective tissue disease of an autoimmune type. Rehabilitation Physicians, although in the past were involved in Physical Medicine, had narrowed their field of expertise and in recognition no longer included the term Physical Medicine in the description of their faculty.

General practitioners seeking assessment and treatment skills attended the RACGP Introductory Course in 1985 under Professor John Murtagh of Monash University and Dr Clive Kenna of Monash Medical Centre. This course was available for GPs of at least three years post hospital experience. Because of the interest shown by 2000 GPs who attended the course, a longer course with written and clinical examinations was later held at Monash Medical Centre, and a certificate awarded. After 1989, the certificate course became a conjoint course of the RACGP and ACPM. A formal programme of further training and examination was developed. After two further years of study and attending specific courses, admission to Fellowship via a written examination and clinical viva was approved.