Vale Professor Vladimir Janda

It was with regret that we heard of the passing of Professor Vladimir Janda on Sunday 24th November. Professor Janda’s work will be well known to many readers of as one of the pioneers of manual medicine in Europe. In conjunction with Professor Karel Lewit he introduced the concepts of muscle pattern imbalance and sensory motor stimulation.

He was a tireless worker in the field and travelled the world including Australia regularly to present his material at workshops, and was still doing this well into his seventies. I had the privilege to attend one his workshops three or four years ago and was truly impressed with his work, his teaching ability and the energy and commitment he displayed over the weekend.

He was in a fairly unique situation in that his teachings have been widely adopted within all disciplines within manual medicine including chiropractic and osteopathy, and this is a reflection of the validity of his work.

Professor Janda’s legacy to all practitioners in this field is a widely applicable approach to a variety of musculoskeletal conditions. He will be sadly missed, but his teachings continue to be widely utilised and are benefiting patients daily.

Peter Werth