The Sunday News
Peter Matika, Senior Reporter
FOUR-years ago specialist paedriatric physiotherapist Precious Madzimbe was inspired to write a medical book that would specifically focus on local conditions, particularly those affecting children.
He came to this realisation after attending a Physiotherapy Summer School in Torres Vedras, Portugal in 2018.
Madzimbe told Sunday News in an interview that preparations for officially launching book were at an advanced stage and would be done at his private Clinic.
“The tentative date for the book launch is 25 May (Africa Day) – on that special day, we will be cerebrating this medical book written in the African Context,” said Madzimbe.
While in Europe he had the opportunity to meet world-renowned authors in the subject of Physiotherapy.
“That is when I came to the realization that most first world countries use medical books written locally. The books are very useful and easy to read to them because they are contextualized to meet their local needs and resources.
While I was still in Europe, the topic of this book precipitated in my mind. Upon my return from Europe, I began working on the book,” said Madzimbe.
He said the book, titled Paediatric Physiotherapy: Patient Assessment in the African Context was written with the hope to guide physiotherapy students and qualified physiotherapists to assess, identify paediatric (0-21 years age groups, as defined by the American Academy of Paediatrics) patient problems and formulate patient management protocol in an African setting.
“The book also helps the reader to relate subjective and objective patient assessment in clinical reasoning. The book is uniquely written with diagrams, tables and commonly used shorthand in the medical fraternity to summarize content, making it user-friendly for quick referencing even during ward rounds. It is arguably the first paediatric physiotherapy book to be written by a black Specialist Paediatric Physiotherapist in Zimbabwe,” said Madzimbe.
He said society, especially the physiotherapy community will benefit by having a locally produced physiotherapy book, which will be easy to understand as it is in the African context and is rich in local examples.
“Using local books reduces our import bill. This book is therefore going to save the much-needed foreign currency in the tertiary education sector. I have started exporting the book and is being sold on Amazon and anyone can purchase it from anywhere in the world.
‘This will contribute to foreign currency flows into Zimbabwe. To the general populace, the tittle itself carries awareness of the important role played by physiotherapy in children with various medical conditions. Most people don’t know the role of a specialist paediatric physiotherapist hence those who masquerade as physiotherapists find it easy to impersonate,” said Madzimbe
He noted that as a contribution to society, he has written this book whose proceeds in form of royalties will wholly go towards funding physiotherapy treatments of the less privileged children across Zimbabwe.
“I have plans to launch a Paediatric Physiotherapy scholarship in my name to send one local physiotherapist to specialize in paediatric physiotherapy at UCT using proceeds from this book,” he declared.
Madzimbe said he hoped the book would be available in libraries across the globe.
He added that this was his first ever endeavor in authoring a book.
“Publishing a medical book is not easy. It takes time and is expensive. There is no other specialist paediatric Physiotherapist in Bulawayo. I had to seek assistance out of the country for the reviewing process of the book. This is when I was introduced to one physiotherapist who is a professor in paediatrics. He made some recommendations, which I then implemented. I then came across another specialist paediatric physiotherapist from Ghana who meticulously edited it. Three countries were brought together in the writing of this book. The energy infused is more than that which is used to complete a 4-year degree.
