Invited Perspective - Historical Series Dr. Jessie Wright: Breaking New Ground in Pediatric Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Michael Alexander, MD, Margaret A. Turk, MD, Rita Ayyangar, MD INTRODUCTION Any history of the growth and acceptance of physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) as a medical specialty in the United States must include an appreciation of the barriers to and rise of women in medicine. Both histories actually began in the 19th century. Pros- thetics were developed for survivors of amputations in the Civil War in the mid to late 1800s, and the American electrotherapy medical societies of the 1890s presaged the development of the physical therapeutics of modern musculoskeletal medicine [1]. The mid 19th century also was an historic time for women in medicine. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, graduated from the Geneva Medical College (now the State University of New York Upstate Medical University) in 1849 and overcame, at least to some extent, the prejudicial attitudes and barriers for women in medicine [2]. The history of PM&R has always been tied to major wars, and, therefore, further de- velopments within the medical specialty were actually made possible by World Wars I and II, and by others that followed. For pediatric rehabilitation, the polio epidemic in the mid 21st century was a major contributor to the growth of the specialty. Physical medicine eventually was recognized as a specialty in 1947, with the addition of rehabilitation to the name in 1949. Jessie Wright, MD, was a charter member of the American Society of Physical Medicine, and she was the no. 82 certificant of the American Board of Physical Medicine when it was recognized by the American Medical Association in 1947. Of the first 100 certificants of the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (ABPMR), the number required for recognition of the field as a medical specialty and its certifying board, 5 were women, a number that closely approximated the percentage of women in medicine at the time. Whereas physiatrists became recognized as medical physicians for disability care, women were not welcomed into the “house of medicine” in greater numbers until the 1970s [3]. Wright was recognized during her lifetime as an outstanding physician who made extraordinary contributions to the field of PM&R. Her accomplishments are more extraordinary because she was a female physician practicing in an era when women had to confront attitudes and barriers and surpass the expectations of their male colleagues. She was an academic physiatrist who was also an inventor of the rocking bed for the respiratory management of children and adults with poliomyelitis, and a major physiatric leader, locally, nationally, and internationally (Figure 1). EARLY CHOICES AND COINCIDENCES Jessie Wright, MD, was born on September 5, 1900, in England, where her father was head master of a church school in Eccleshall. When she was 6 years old, she immigrated with her family to the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, where she trained and practiced medicine. Known as “JW” by friends and colleagues, she clearly benefited from a number of long-term relationships with Pittsburgh medical institutions and medical professionals. While she was still a teenager, Wright provided therapeutic exercises and care for a friend whose father was associated with the D. T. Watson Home for Crippled Children, a facility for the care of children with disabilities in the Pittsburgh area (renamed the D. T. Watson Rehabilitation Hospital and, in 2013, The Watson Institute). Wright both trained and practiced medicine at the institution throughout her entire career [4]. M.A. Pediatrics and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA Disclosure: nothing to disclose M.A.T. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY. Address correspondence to: M.A.T.; e-mail: turkm@upstate.edu Disclosure related to this publication: nothing to disclose Disclosures outside this publication: grants, Centers for Disease Control 1U01DD001007- 01: Coordinating Center for Research and Training to Promote the Health of People with Developmental and Other Disabilities; travel/ accommodations/meeting expenses, World Bank, program for staff about Disability Health and Rehabilitation: other, coeditor, Disability and Health Journal, Elsevier Inc., Sage Refer- ence Series on Disability 2013 R.A. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI Disclosure related to this publication: nothing to disclose Disclosures outside this publication: board membership, AAPM&R Board of Governors PM&R 1934-1482/13/$36.00 Printed in U.S.A. ª 2013 by the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Vol. 5, 739-746, September 2013 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pmrj.2013.07.006 739