Effective rehabilitation team working has been recognized and described since World War 1 (5). Teamwork is a working standard in rehabilitation, and it can also be a valid tool to increase the number of professional and sometimes non-professional human resources in the care sector, particularly in developing countries. Different forms of team work, including interdisciplinary (IDR), multidisciplinary (MDR), and transdisciplinary rehabilitation formats, were described. However, there are disputes about the suitability, effectiveness, and setting of each type of team (6, 7, 8, 9). The composition of the rehabilitation teams and the number of team members vary widely depending on the disease condition and the individualized choice of the primary team member. There were dilemmas about the exact nature of the relationship between team members, which was not always specified (6). In some advanced indoor settings of rehabilitation in developed countries, the MDR team must meet every week, which is rare in developing regions (10). A few other countries use a full rehabilitation team that includes a PRM physician, a rehabilitation nurse, orthotics and prosthetics, rehabilitation therapists (physical, occupational, speech language), medical social workers, and other critical-skilled professionals (11, 12).

Effective team management is considered essential for rehabilitation goal setting team meetings and subsequent team coordination. Many of the developing countries' rehabilitation is not a health priority and faces multiple challenges in rehabilitation team functioning (9, 13, 14, 15, 16). Then, what should be the format of the rehabilitation team and who should be leading and coordinating the team functions? Theoretically, personnel who have adequate training, knowledge, and skills required to make a pathologic diagnosis of the condition, evaluate activity and participation restrictions, and be able to select treatment options are required to lead the multidisciplinary rehabilitation team. No single professional is likely to have the full range of skills to achieve optimal results alone. There is a knowledge gap between the theory, the existing situation, and practice in rehabilitation. A good leader must be skilled at clarifying, defining issues, setting goals, and coordinating action steps. He or she should be complying with the mission of the country or the institute at large. The Professional Practice Committee of the Union of European Medical Specialists (UEMS) PRM Section reviewed patterns of teamwork and debated recommendations for good practice during 2008. The consensus statement was that a PRM physician is well-placed to coordinate PRM programs and to develop and evaluate new management strategies (6). There are some success stories of physician-led rehabilitation teams functioning in developing countries' rehabilitation settings (17). In order to stimulate the growth of physical medicine and rehabilitation practices in low-resource nations, organizations like the International Rehabilitation Forum (IRF) established a network of global leaders by offering leadership and specialty training to local practitioners (18). Consequently, one or two physical rehabilitation medicine physicians successfully lead rehabilitation teams in some nations in Asia and the sub-Saharan area. The IRF played a typical neutral catalyst role in transferring rehabilitation leadership thought (9, 16, 18).

Multiple challenges were identified for developing a physician-led rehabilitation team functioning in developing countries presented in Box 1.