Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance
Influencing policy and care together for best lifelong musculoskeletal health
Simon Collins
NRAS is delighted to announce Simon Collins as the newly elected Chair of the Board of Trustees and would like to thank Gordon Taylor for four years as chair. The Society is pleased that Gordon will continue to serve as an NRAS Trustee.
Four newly elected Trustees have also joined the established board and they are Ellie Potter, Rich Flowerdew, Simone Webb and Lindsey Cook.…
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NRAS has been working with the social enterprise Good Boost, who champion the phrase “Move More, Have Fun, Feel Better.” Their mission is to create more affordable and accessible options for MSK community health services, and they use technology at the forefront for change.
With growing numbers of physiotherapy and joint surgery appointments postponed due to Covid-19, their team of physiotherapists, osteopaths, MSK researchers, software engineers and AI specialists recognised the need for solutions providing personalised support at home.…
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The British Psoriatic Arthritis Consortium is working with the James Lind Alliance to run a priority setting partnership (PSP). The aim is to create a national top-10 list of research priorities for psoriatic arthritis. They want ideas and thoughts from people with different experiences and backgrounds: those with psoriatic arthritis, their families, carers and clinicians.
The survey has now been open for two months and 228 surveys have been completed. You can read information on who has completed the survey so far in the survey’s update document.…
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The shielding guidance has changed so that from 1 June 2020 people who are shielding are advised that they may go outside once per day following strict social distancing. No other aspect of the guidance has changed, so people are still advised that they should remain 2 metres away from other members of their household, minimise the time spent in shared spaces, etc. Some people with MSK conditions are shielding, either because of the combination of medication they are taking or because they have other conditions that make them extremely vulnerable.…
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PHE has updated their public messaging to convey the latest advice from the Government regarding coronavirus. The new posters display the key messages for the ‘Stay Alert’ phase, containing official guidance relating to social distancing in specific settings:
Other messaging includes:
Here are the latest posters and imagery designed for dissemination on Social media.…
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Public Health England are working in partnership with BBC Get Inspired, Sport England and London Sport to launch a 9-week Couch to 5K challenge that will promote the app as an accessible way of becoming physically active while social distancing measures remain in place.
New campaign to help those with sleep struggles during lockdown
Mental Health Awareness Week took place from 18-24 May 2020. To mark the event, Public Health England launched new advice on its ‘Every Mind Matters’ platform to help people improve their sleep. It comes as new data from Public Health England shows that more than four in 10 (41%) 1 Brits are experiencing more sleep problems than usual, with over half of 16-29-year olds (52%) 2 the most likely to be affected.…
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Alongside the pain and misery of the Covid-19 pandemic there have also been some beneficial side effects – quiet streets and skies, birdsong, less pollution. This is also true in the world of MSK. ARMA has been a champion for the NHS Change Challenge, a project to identify the new and innovative ways of working that have been rapidly developed across the NHS and to ensure beneficial changes are captured and locked in. I think it is no accident that NHS Improvement chose to pilot this in MSK.…
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SOMM’s next Foundation course is due to be held in London in September, and all courses following are still scheduled to take place at the moment. The Society is keeping a close eye on advice as the lockdown eases.
MSc Musculoskeletal Medicine
The good news is that the next run of the MSc Musculoskeletal Medicine has been confirmed as definitely going ahead as planned this year. Induction will take place during the week beginning 7 September 2020 but will now be conducted remotely.…
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Guest blog by
Cormac Kelly, Consultant Upper Limb Surgeon at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
and
Peter Kay, National Orthopaedic Alliance (NOA) Lead Clinician and Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
The COVID-19 crisis has changed the delivery of planned orthopaedic surgery drastically. As the pandemic continues to subside, the NHS, with various guidance from Public Health England, Medical and Surgical Colleges, the British Orthopaedic Association, and others, is working on a plan to get surgery back on track.…
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