The Department of Rehabilitation Medicine has been set up at Semmelweis University in 2019 as an independent organizational unit on the basis of the Rehabilitation Clinic of the Semmelweis University (former National Institute of Medical Rehabilitation – Országos Orvosi Rehabilitációs Intézet/OORI).
The activity of the Department includes undergraduate and postgraduate education of medical doctors and other members of the rehabilitation team. Teaching Rehabilitation Medicine as compulsory fifth-year block course at the Faculty of Medicine began in 2020, and it is part of the Hungarian, English and German language program.
Rehabilitation medicine is a relatively new and constantly developing profession, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation was declared as an independent field by the WHO only in 1968. The Department considers its work as the continuation of the specialist training started in 1980 at the National Institute of Medical Rehabilitation. In 2008, the European Union of Medical Specialists decided to insert rehabilitation medicine into the curriculum of medical universities. The subject was launched as an optional course at Semmelweis University in 2009, and the education reached its current form with the establishment of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine in 2019.
The Board of Rehabilitation Medicine is also located at the Rehabilitation Clinic, Semmelweis University.
Director of the Board is Dr. Zoltán Dénes, Associate Professor and Head of Department since 2010. Board members are Professor Dr. Pál Géher, Professor Dr. Gábor Fazekas, Associate Professor Dr. Gábor Viktor Szabó, Dr. Erzsébet Boros.