by Judi Rhys, Chief Executive of Arthritis Care I recently attended a plenary session at the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology Congress. The presentations were concerned with the ‘global musculoskeletal challenge’ and the ‘imminent avalanche of demand’ ahead. Many of the speakers referred to the rise in worldwide obesity and the link between obesity and osteoarthritis. A review of research in this area suggests an obese person is 14 times more likely to develop knee osteoarthritis, compared with a person of normal weight.…
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MSK & Arthritis News
Guest Blog – Early diagnosis leads to a better prognosis
by Chris Maker, Director of LUPUS UK One of the biggest problems for people who have lupus is obtaining a diagnosis. During 2009 LUPUS UK posted a survey questionnaire to all 5,700 members asking them to provide information about how lupus impacts on their lives. The response was overwhelming with over 3,000 completed questionnaires being returned. The summary of findings was:
- It was taking, on average, more than 7 years to diagnose lupus from the first symptom experienced – this had not improved over a 20 year period.
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Guest Blog – Uniting our voice locally
by Sue Browning, Deputy CEO, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
The scale of the challenge presented by how we are going to pay for care in the future is daunting. Adults with long-term and multiple conditions and disabilities are living longer, but according to the recent National Audit Office report1, the older adults social care budget has experienced the greatest reduction over recent years – 12% in real terms. Given that the age group of adults aged 85+, the group most likely to need care, is rising faster than the population as a whole, we know that something has to change.…
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Guest Blog – How Much Person-Centred Healthcare?
by Nick Pahl, CEO of the British Acupuncture Council
2014 is the centenary of the start of the First World War. Certainly I don’t want to suffer what happened to Asquith the then Prime Minister. Allegedly, he used to spend Cabinet meetings translating dispatches from the front into Latin verse, believing there was little else he could do with them … my lesson from this is that we need to ensure we respond to concerns, particularly from patients and the public.…
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Guest Blog – Can we please talk about early diagnosis?
By Ailsa Bosworth, CEO of the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society
In November 2011 the then Minister for Long Term Conditions, Paul Burstow MP, commissioned health officials to conduct a scoping exercise into early diagnosis across the health service to understand the extent of delayed diagnosis and its impact on patients. At around the same time the Coalition Government launched a national dementia awareness campaign to encourage people to spot the early signs of the disease and earmarked £10 million for dementia memory services to improve early diagnosis and treatment of the condition.…
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Guest Blog: Debbie Cook – December 2013
Musculoskeletal conference – the patient story
Last week I had the pleasure of speaking at the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance’s MSK2013 conference about the patient experience.
I was honoured to be asked, to be given the opportunity of talking to commissioners, Healthcare professionals and other patient group representatives. I shared the patient journey slot with Jo from Arthritis Care.
I presented the highlights, key messages from our recent patient survey. It was great to have data representing the journey and opinions from 1630 people with a diagnosis of AS.…
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