MSK & Arthritis News

Chronic Pain – This is how it feels

In October 2019 a report on chronic pain services and management from a patient and healthcare professional perspective was published. The research has highlighted a number of key insights and themes for how respondents felt that chronic pain services can be improved and made more equitable in the future. Pain is one of the common factors across all MSK conditions, so this is something which ARMA will be following up in the future.

This report describes the results of qualitative interviews with 23 patients and 20 healthcare professionals.…

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ARMA, PHE and the Centre for Ageing Better

ARMA joins Public Health England and the Centre for Ageing Better to make England the best place to grow old, because musculoskeletal health is vital to healthy ageing.

ARMA joined over sixty high-profile organisations in the UK’s health, housing, employment, research and voluntary sectors to launch a landmark shared vision on healthy ageing.

There are five key principles: prioritising prevention and public health; creating opportunities for people to contribute to society as they age; fostering accessible and inclusive homes and neighbourhoods so everyone can live where they want; narrowing inequalities in healthy ageing; and challenging ageist language, culture and practices.…

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Rheumatology follow-ups: Transforming Outpatients

Guest blog by Amanda Woolley, Policy and Implementation Lead for the Elective Care Transformation Programme at NHS England and NHS Improvement

The NHS Long Term Plan set the ambition to reduce outpatient attendances by a third over the next five years. Rheumatology services are leading the way in developing alternatives to the traditional outpatient model so that patients can access the support and treatment they need, at the time they need it.

Most people seen by rheumatology services will have chronic, long term conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis and will require continuing specialist input to support management of their condition.…

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PHE Prescribed medicines review

In September, Public Health England published a report on their review of the scale, distribution and causes of prescription drug dependence, and what might be done to address it. This included findings on opioid use for non cancer pain. The report made recommendations for action to reduce the problems caused by dependency and stated that effective, personalised care should include shared decision-making with patients and regular reviews of whether treatment is working.

Long-term prescribing of opioids for chronic, non-cancer pain is not effective for most patients.…

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Stretches for your daily life

NASS has just released a new series of videos showing how everyone living with axial spondyloarthritis (axial SpA) – including people with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) – can fit some simple but very effective stretches into their daily life.

No Lycra. No trainers. No gym.

These videos were developed with with a group of specialist axial SpA (AS) physiotherapists from AStretch. They include stretches which patients can do in bed in the morning and stretches for while waiting for the kettle to boil, at the kitchen table and on the sofa to name a few.…

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NICE Interventional Procedures Guidance

NICE are developing Interventional Procedures Guidance: High tibial osteotomy using a magnetic rod device for insertion for precise alignment in early knee arthritis IP1762.

In medial knee osteoarthritis, the cartilage in the inner part of the knee joint wears away. This can cause the joint to become lopsided, which can cause pain, stiffness, and difficulty bending and straightening the knee. In this procedure, a cut (osteotomy) is made in the top of one of the bones in the lower leg (tibia) and a magnetic nail is inserted into the bone.…

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NICE Joint replacement: hip, knee and shoulder

A NICE draft guideline on joint replacement (primary): hip, knee and shoulder and its supporting evidence is now out for consultation.

Comments can be submitted on the draft guideline to help ensure that the guideline considers important issues. The consultation page has all the information and documents to comment.

The Developer has produced an economic model to support the guideline. An executable version of this model is available on request and will be released on receipt of a completed confidentiality form.…

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PHE Musculoskeletal Health and Inequalities webinar

Public Health England together with Keele University and Race Equality Foundation invite you to join us for the ‘Musculoskeletal Health and Inequalities’ webinar, on 14 November 2019, 10:00 to 11:00am.  

This webinar will discuss the findings from commissioned work looking at evidence on the differential effectiveness of PHE’s publication on return on investment interventions and what we know about their current level and patterns of provision and uptake. The webinar will then explore data sources to demonstrate these inequalities and discuss the evidence, quantitative and qualitative, on what MSK health inequalities exist for people with a Learning Disability and BAME groups.…

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National MSK Health Data Group

Versus Arthritis is hosting the 11th National MSK Health Data Group on Monday 2nd December 2019 from 9:00-13:00, followed by lunch and networking until 14:00 at The Royal Society, London, SW1Y 5AG.

The speaker programme will run in line with the event’s main ethos of creating a common forum to empower all those working on and with an interest in MSK-related data to come together and both share and hear about the data-related activities going on across the MSK community.

The programme for the day with be focused around key talking points in the MSK data community covering topics such as MSK conditions in children and young people, improving the quality of care in MSK pain medicine, and general project updates from ongoing projects such as the National Early Inflammatory Arthritis audit and the possible development of an MSK Intelligence Network.…

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National Early Inflammatory Arthritis Audit first report

The National Early Inflammatory Arthritis Audit (NEIAA) collects information on all new patients over the age of sixteen seen in specialist rheumatology departments with suspected inflammatory arthritis in England and Wales. The first report was published in October. The audit assesses seven key metrics of care provided for people with new symptoms of arthritis attending rheumatology services for the first time and makes recommendations for services, educators and commissioners.

Some of the key findings include:

  • Secondary care units take an average of 28 days to achieve first assessment, compared to a target of three weeks.
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