Arthritis News & Musculoskeletal News from ARMA's Members

Stigma and pain – new survey

Pain Alliance Europe launched a new survey on stigma and chronic pain. One of the main “fights” PAE is leading is for the pain patient to be heard, believed and understood. The most recent survey developed deals with stigma related to chronic pain and will be open until the 1st of March, 2019.

Besides the many physical challenges that chronic pain inflicts, patients deal with the psychological burden of having a condition they do not deliberately choose to have.

To understand better to which extent stigma is a part of the illness pack in the life of a chronic pain patient, Pain Alliance Europe has directed its questions for 2019’s survey about chronic pain to the way patients perceive and are affected by the subjectivity of other categories from society that they come in contact with during their pain journey.…

Read more of this article

Open Call for Innovative Medicine

FOREUM – Foundation for Research in Rheumatology – announces a programme to support innovative concepts to improve the diagnosis and treatment of Rheumatic Musculoskeletal Diseases (RMDs). This programme is designed as an open research call seeking for the best and most visionary approaches to better understand RMDs and to improve the life of patients with RMDs.

As such, the call is not limited to a specific disease within the RMD spectrum but rather intends to target fundamentally new concepts that have potential to gain concept-changing insights into RMDs.…

Read more of this article

GIRFT spinal surgery

Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) national report calls for short-term pain relief to be replaced with rehabilitation.

GIRFT say that replacing short-term pain relief injections with long-term physical and psychological rehabilitation programmes could help tens of thousands more patients cope with debilitating back pain, in their new report on spinal surgery.

See the spinal surgery report page for more details.

Good design for arthritis – Room to Manoeuvre

Good design touches our lives every day. From the cars we drive to the beds we sleep in, the equipment and products that we use have been constructed to make our lives easier. But often the design decisions fail to take into account those with physical limitations.

Versus Arthritis is concerned that people with arthritis are missing out because designers have not thought about the challenges they face.

As part of the Room to Manoeuvre campaign, VA want more people to understand the impact of arthritis, and to work together to create solutions so that the equipment and spaces people with arthritis use are more effective.…

Read more of this article

WORD Day – 18 March 2019

The first ever annual WORD Day, “WOrld Young Rheumatic Disease Day” takes place on the 18 March in 2019.

Jointly inaugurated by PReS (www.PRES.EU) and the parent/patient association ENCA (www.ENCA.org), the objectives of this day are to raise parental and professional awareness of these illnesses. Raising awareness of paediatric rheumatic diseases among health care providers will help speed up diagnosis, especially of rarer diseases.

WORD pediatric day is also directed at the wider public, since it is important to raise social awareness to the needs of children with rheumatic illnesses.…

Read more of this article

All Our Health MSK Chapter

Public Health England added a musculoskeletal chapter to its All Our Health guidance to help health professionals prevent ill health and promote wellbeing in their everyday practice.

This guidance helps front-line health and care staff promote the benefits of maintaining good musculoskeletal health with a focus on prevention, early detection and treatment.

PHE also recommend important actions that managers and staff holding strategic roles can take.

All our Health is a PHE led ‘Call to Action’ for all health and care professionals to embed and extend prevention, health protection and promotion of wellbeing and resilience into practice.…

Read more of this article

Resource to support GPs in identifying work modifications – user testing

By Steve Boorman, Chair, Council for Work and Health

Work and Health Unit commissioned resource to support GPs in identifying work modifications.

You may be aware from previous contacts and, or consultations, that the Work and Health Unit (WHU), as part of its “Improving Lives” strategic programme, has identified a need to provide additional support resources to Doctors, to help them in supporting patients to identify work adjustments to improve workability and improve recovery.

The Council for Work and Health was commissioned to research and develop this work and a dedicated researcher was used to review published literature, collate existing available resources and to develop content.…

Read more of this article

Consultation on new Chiropractic Quality Standard: Osteoporosis

The Royal College of Chiropractors has opened a consultation on a draft Osteoporosis Quality Standard and is seeking the views of all stakeholders including interested organisations, chiropractors, other healthcare professionals, patients and the public.

Comments are invited on any aspect of the document including its relevance and applicability to the chiropractic profession, the achievability of the standards described in the quality statements, the utility of the quality statements in terms of promoting best care, the document’s accuracy and validity in terms of the evidence base and the clarity of the content to practitioners, patients and other stakeholders.…

Read more of this article

Vote for PHE MSK Indicator

For the first time, a musculoskeletal indicator may be included in the ‘Public Health Outcomes Framework’ (PHOF). The PHOF is a set of indicators Public Health England use to determine the nation’s public health and is reviewed every year – a good analogy is the ‘basket of goods’ that are reviewed every year to measure inflation.

However, the indicator is not guaranteed unless it gets support and is ‘voted up’ to assure its inclusion. So please take five minutes to complete the survey and ‘vote up’ the MSK indicator.…

Read more of this article

CEO update: Let’s all get on the bandwagon together

As I sat down to write this, NHS Chief Executive Simon Stevens was on the radio talking about plans to increase the ability of patients to see pharmacists and physios rather than a GP as their first point of contact in the NHS. Ensuring we have the right workforce to meet the growing health needs of an ageing population is a real challenge. ARMA’s different professional members have a lot to contribute, as I discovered when I spent a day at the Royal College of Chiropractors conference.…

Read more of this article