ARIR has been founded in 1989 by a group of Physiotherapists who want to be the voice of professionals who work in Respiratory Care and contribute to develop this profession ensuring high quality training and continuing medical education and promoting discussion between those were working in Respiratory Physiotherapy and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. The multidisciplinary and Evidence-Based-Medicine approach are the preferred paradigms for pursuing the above objectives.
In the last 15 years, ARIR created significant links of interaction and collaboration with associations involved in the field of Physiotherapy and Pulmonary rehabilitation. ARIR organize continuing medical education opportunities with the physiotherapists members of the Società Italiana per lo studio della Fibrosi Cistica (SIFC) and with the Associazione Italiana Fisioterapisti (AIFI). ARIR was a founder of the European Respiratory Care Association (ERCA) and since 2002 has been affiliated with the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) and the Associazione Italiana Pneumologi Ospedalieri (AIPO).
One other relevant initiative made by ARIR is the first level professional master’s programme on Respiratory Physiotherapy and Pulmonary Rehabilitation, which has trained more than 200 italian and foreign incomer respiratory physiotherapists. This initiative contributes concretely to the commencement of this discipline in Italy.