Physiotherapy is a process wherein the professionals known as physiotherapists provide a series of physical therapy to restore or improve a patient's physical health.

Now to prescribe a plan to start the treatment, a physical examination or assessment is done to understand the best course of treatment and help keep a track of the progress. Also, physiotherapy assessment is done to evaluate the seriousness of the disease and whether it is in its initial stage or not. Most diseases that are in their early stages are expected to be cured solely through therapy or medication if so provided by the physiotherapist.

During initial assessments, there are two kinds of data that are recorded in the forms by the physiotherapists namely - subjective data and objective data.

Subjective data as the word suggests is the type of data that is shared by the client providing the details about his problems, pains, complaints, symptoms, etc. The client shares this information often verbally or in a way that he thinks the best (like a standardized form that the client completes). In case the client is unable to communicate, the information can also be passed down from his relative, family member or another health professional.

The symptoms that are provided by the clients act as a piece of evaluation for the physiotherapist in understanding the signs and the enormity and kind of the disease. Based on the information provided by the clients the physiotherapist makes a list of data called objective data.

The objective assessments are where the physiotherapy suspects a few illnesses based on patients complaints. These assessment methods include tests that are done physically on the patient to gather information on movements. The initial objective examination is done on the joint range, muscle strength, muscle tone, and other balance, gait (walking), reflexes (neurological), special tests (done only manually) etc.

After a complete assessment is when the physiotherapist analyses both the data, cross-checks, compares it with the medical report and comes up with a provisional diagnosis for the treatment.

However, as one progresses with treatment, the physiotherapist might come across different things which may force them to alter the course of the diagnosis.