Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance
Influencing policy and care together for best lifelong musculoskeletal health
The Society of Musculoskeletal Medicine has launched a new course in collaboration with Effective Professional Interactions (EPI), aimed at first contact practitioners – GPs, Allied Health Professionals and Nurse Practitioners.
The two-day course aims to increase consultation and clinical examination effectiveness in MSK Medicine and includes how to exclude red flags.
Read the Consultation and Clinical Examination Effectiveness in MSK Medicine programme for course details, fees and booking.
NICE guideline: Safe prescribing and withdrawal management of prescribed drugs associated with dependence and withdrawal
The final scope and equality impact assessment for this NICE guideline have now been published, along with all the stakeholder comments that were received during consultation and our responses to these comments.
NICE identified ARMA as a stakeholder for this topic and ARMA is able to comment on the draft guideline when it is available. Please contact us should you have an interest in this topic and are a member.…
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Workplace health: long-term sickness absence and capability to work
NICE published this final guideline on the NICE website. You can also find the supporting evidence, tools and resources as well as all the stakeholder comments NICE received during consultation and the responses to these comments.
The recommendations from this guideline have been included in the NICE Pathway on Managing long-term sickness absence and capability to work, which brings together everything NICE said on Workplace health: long-term sickness absence and capability to work in an interactive flowchart.…
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Readers of this newsletter will all be aware that physical activity is essential for musculoskeletal health. Every month we seem to report new publications on the subject. This month is no exception: two recent publications highlight the challenges and propose some solutions.
Researchers have studied adolescents’ activity levels in 146 countries and found that more than 80% are not meeting the recommended levels of activity. In the UK in 2016, more than 85% of girls were not active enough, and neither were almost 75% of boys.…
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Medical Devices Regulation from 2020On 26 May 2017 the Medical Devices Regulation (MDR 2017/745) was published, with the aim of replacing the current Medical Devices Directive (MDD 93/43/EC). Following a transition period of three years, this regulation will be applied in full from 26 May 2020.
The BOA has recently published its position statement on the MDR. They welcome the drive to improve the rigour and regulation of novel devices and procedures for the benefit of patients. However, the BOA raises some particular concerns with regard to legacy devices, regulation of different types of device, value of registry data in evaluating devices and long term monitoring.…
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Versus Arthritis have made available their responses to recent consultations and governmental health proposals.
In particular, you can read November’s response to the HM Government consultation ‘Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s’, and the joint submission document, sent alongside other charities and health organisations, to highlight the urgent need for increased, sustainable public health funding.
Visit the Versus Arthritis Consultation Responses page.
Can you help us improve healthcare for people with fibromyalgia in the UK?
Professor Gary Macfarlane and Dr Rosemary Hollick of the PACFiND study team are looking for healthcare professionals who see patients with fibromyalgia to take part in a short online survey.
This survey will help PACFiND understand current provision of NHS services for people with fibromyalgia.
PACFiND (PAtient-centred Care for Fibromyalgia: New pathway Design) is a project aimed at developing new pathways of care for people with fibromyalgia.
Please click here to complete this survey.…
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Draft Scope Consultation
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has been asked to consider an appraisal of guselkumab for treating active psoriatic arthritis after inadequate response to DMARDs ID1658.
NICE invited organisations to take part in the consultation to discuss the draft remit and scope. The organisations selected as stakeholders are listed here and the draft scope that is being consulted on can be found here.
The consultation closes on Wednesday 18 December 2019. If you have any queries regarding this scoping exercise or would like to be involved you can contact Michelle Adhemar, Scoping Project Manager at scopingta@nice.org.uk…
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The late Edgar Stene, who had severe ankylosing spondylitis, was a great promoter of co-operation between doctors, patients and community workers. The EULAR Edgar Stene Prize Competition runs yearly in his memory and honour. First prize is € 1,000 and the winner will be invited to attend the EULAR Congress in Frankfurt. Second prize is €700 and third prize is €300.
The 2020 prize will be awarded to the winning essay on the topic:
“Being a person with a rheumatic or musculoskeletal disease (RMD) – How my voluntary work benefits me”
The EULAR Edgar Stene Prize 2020 competition is open to people 18 years and over who are living with a rheumatic and musculoskeletal (RMD) disease.…
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20 November 2019
Our annual lecture 2019 explored the links between MSK and mental health, the implications for how we commission and design services and how we work with individual patients. Everyone has a role to play because mental health is all of our business. Brendon Stubbs is Head of Physiotherapy, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation trust and NIHR Clinical Lecturer, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London.…
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