Citizen

All physiotherapists hold a professional licence issued by the Portuguese Order of Physiotherapists. If you want to know whether an intervention has been carried out by a physiotherapist who is duly qualified to do so, you should ask to see the physiotherapist's professional card. The OF advises all citizens to ask for a physiotherapist's certificate when starting treatment.

You can also contact your physiotherapist at Directory on the website of the Order of Physiotherapists.

The physiotherapist will help you with specific physiotherapy interventions. You should bear in mind that when you are looking for a registered Physiotherapist, you are looking for a duly qualified health professional, who must act within quality standards and subject to a Code of Ethics, a Disciplinary Regulation and the guarantee of professional liability insurance.

Yes. Physiotherapists may practise another profession for which they are legally qualified, as long as they clearly differentiate the professional activity carried out at any given time.

Yes. All Physiotherapists who are legally qualified to carry out Physiotherapy at home can carry out Physiotherapy sessions at the patient's home. Physiotherapists may not carry out physiotherapy sessions in their own homes, unless they have premises that allow access and autonomous and duly appropriate private areas.

The physiotherapist has a duty of clarification in order to allow an informed choice and the user, or whoever is authorised to do so, has the right to be informed about the purpose and nature of the intervention, the right to consent or to constitute the right to refuse the intervention and to revoke consent.

Article 11 of Chapter IX of the Physiotherapist's Code of Ethics, which can be found at hereThis article is dedicated to the informed consent of users. 

No. Physiotherapists work in different areas. Pain is a relevant symptom for both the patient and the physiotherapist, which must be taken into account, but it is not the only one. Physiotherapists also work in clinical situations in which the element of pain is not present.

Yes, one of the statutory functions of the Order of Physiotherapists is to defend the general interests of patients from services provided by its members, enforcing the citizens' right to health.

The Order of Physiotherapists has a Jurisdictional Council which, among other competences, can instruct and judge disciplinary proceedings against members of the Order.

There is a procedure in place to register and review all complaints submitted, depending on nature, which requires a response to the person or entity that submitted the complaint, and the respective referral.

If you would like to submit a report/complaint/complaint regarding a Physiotherapist, please fill in the available form here and send it to geral@ordemdosfisioterapeutas.pt.

Pedro Maciel Barbosa

Specialist physiotherapist at the Matosinhos Local Health Unit Sub-coordinator for Primary Health Care, Matosinhos Local Health Unit Visiting Assistant Professor at the Porto School of Health Member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Health - SNS Member of the General Council of the Order of Physiotherapists

Carlos Sand

Carlos Areia has been a physiotherapist since 2013, and has worked in various hospitals, clinics and clubs in both Portugal and the UK. He began his academic career at Oxford University in 2016, where he led a clinical trial comparing physiotherapy vs surgery in anterior cruciate injuries in 32 hospitals in England. In 2018 she moved to the neurosciences department, where she developed her own studies on remote monitoring of vital signs, which were implemented during the pandemic. Here he discovered his passion for data, and in 2022, he joined Digital Science as a Data Scientist. He completed his PhD earlier this year, and has more than 60 publications in journals such as The Lancet, BMJ, Cochrane, among others. He is also an honorary lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and a consultant in clinical research.

Eduardo José Brazete Carvalho Cruz

PhD in Physiotherapy from the University of Brighton, UK. Post-Doctorate in Epidemiology from the National School of Public Health at the New University of Lisbon.
Coordinator of the Studies and Planning Office of the Order of Physiotherapists. Coordinating Professor of the Physiotherapy Department of the School of Health of the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal (ESS-IPS). President of the ESS-IPS Technical-Scientific Council. Coordinator of the Physiotherapy Department at ESS-IPS. Integrated Researcher at the Comprehensive Health Research Centre (CHRC) (a partnership between FCM-UNL, the National School of Public Health, the University of Évora, the Lisbon Institute of Global Mental Health and Santo Espírito Hospital, Terceira Island, Azores).

Sara Souto Miranda

Sara Souto Miranda has a bachelor's and master's degree in physiotherapy from the University of Aveiro, and a postgraduate qualification in adult respiratory physiotherapy from the same institution. In 2023 she completed her double doctorate in Rehabilitation Sciences/Health, Medicine and Life Sciences at the Universities of Aveiro and Maastricht (Netherlands) and is currently working as a technical-scientific advisor to the Studies and Planning Office (GEP) of the Order of Physiotherapists, and as a guest lecturer at the Piaget Institute in Vila Nova de Gaia. As a member of the Respiratory Research and Rehabilitation Laboratory at the University of Aveiro (Lab3R), she has carried out applied research in which she has assessed and treated patients with respiratory pathology, having taken part in 6 research projects. Throughout her career she has published 19 scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals with an impact factor, 1 book chapter and more than 50 abstracts in conference proceedings. She was a research volunteer at the Ciro rehabilitation centre (Centre for expertise in chronic organ failure) in the Netherlands, and is currently a member of the Guideline Methodology Network of European Respiratory Society. She was honoured by European Lung Foundation e European Respiratory Society for carrying out patient-centred research, by the Directorate General for Higher Education with a merit grant for his master's degree, and by the Ciro Centre with a grant to support research abroad.

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