The Dutch Institute of Allied Health Care (Nederlands Paramedisch Instituut: NPi) is the national expertise centre of allied health care.

Core business
Quality improvement and quality assessment of allied health care.
Allied health care is provided by the allied health professions, which in The Netherlands include dieticians, physiotherapists & exercise therapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, orthoptists and optometrists, radiographers, podiatrists, oral hygienists, skin therapists. In total they amount to 38.000 professionals.

Activities
Research & Development, Postgraduate education & Training -English courses - and Library Services.

Research & Development
Research & Development activities focus at five topics:

1. The chair in allied health sciences in the University Medical Centre St Radboud in Nijmegen (since 2000) (prof.dr. R.A.B. Oostendorp).
2. Classification and Patient Documentation Systems for allied health professions. Since 1989 the institute is a very active party in the development and implementation of the WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF, until 2000 the ICIDH), and other classifications and in developing patient documentation systems for practically all allied health professions.
3. Guidelines development and implementation
   Since 1994 the NPi has worked at the development of 35 guidelines/standards/protocols on physiotherapy, manual therapy, occupational therapy, exercise therapy, podiatry, oral hygiene and dietetics.
4. Quality improvement (incl. Measurement instruments)
   This programme dates from 1987. The ca. 100 executed projects to enhance quality of care concern (patients) groups such as the elderly (living at home, living in nursing homes), children, female immigrants with chronic pain, the mentally retarded; rehabilitation of patients with hand burns; patients with peripheral facial paralysis; whiplash patients; patients with posttraumatic dystrophy, et cetera.
5. Interdisciplinary collaboration, such as the consultation of physiotherapists by general practitioners as a contribution to the diagnostic process of physicians; collaboration of physiotherapists and exercise therapists with general practitioners.

The results of all projects are published, and form input for the Postgraduate Education & Training Programme of the NPi.

Postgraduate Education & Training
The Postgraduate Education & Training Programme consists of around 200 different courses, training activities and symposia. In 2005 a total of 4000 allied health professionals registered as participants. The NPi is the largest organisation offering courses to these professionals. Virtually all activities are accredited. Postgraduate education is organized in close cooperation with university medical and other lecturers. Each year new courses are developed on subjects related to the actual needs of professionals and developments in health care. The courses offer education on different patient categories and on impairments & disabilities, on means & methods of interventions, and on the art of science. In organizing courses care is taken that the guidelines and standards newly authorized by the chartered societies of the different professions are adopted, to further the implementation of evidence based practice.

Library Services
The library services of the NPi started in 1986, since allied health care literature was not systematically indexed in Europe nor anywhere else, so could not easily be retrieved. Recently this situation has improved, but the library services of the NPi are still unique. They include a help desk, a library (journals, reference databases, books), search expertise and four freely accessible databases on the Internet: Literature references (> 111.000 references); Academic studies recently finished or in execution (> 1200 references); Guidelines/standards/protocols (2500 references); Measurement instruments (> 400 references). In 2005 this information portal (DocOnline) registered > 1.200.000 requests.

Organisation
The Dutch Institute of Allied Health Care is located in Amersfoort, in the centre of The Netherlands, south east of Amsterdam (30 minutes by train). The number of employees was 62, after the cut down of the government grant this number has been reduced to 31. Professions include, among others, movements scientists, social scientists, epidemiologists, physicians, physiotherapists, educational specialists and librarians. The board members are: Prof. dr. R.A.B. Oostendorp and H.W.A. Wams, M.Sc. (president).

Address
Nederlands Paramedisch Instituut (NPi)
Post Office Box 1161, 3800 BD AMERSFOORT
Visiting address: Amsterdamseweg 16, 3812 RS AMERSFOORT
Tel. + 31 (0) 33 421 61 00
Fax + 31 (0) 33 421 61 91
Internet: www.paramedisch.org