Arthritis News & Musculoskeletal News from ARMA's Members

Exercise venue preferences for ESCAPE-pain: We want your views

ESCAPE-pain is a 6 week rehabilitation programme for individuals with knee and hip osteoarthritis which aims to educate participants on their condition, self-management and coping strategies as well as exercise. The Health Innovation Network, the Academic Health Science Network, has been working hard for the past 3+ years to spread the adoption of ESCAPE-pain across the U.K, and recently, has been awarded a grant by Sport England as part of their ‘Active Ageing’ project to target inactive adults in particular and increase access to the programme.…

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Meet the new NASS CEO

NASS is pleased to welcome Dr Dale Webb as our new CEO. Dale is passionate about improving health and healthcare, and over the last 25 years he has worked in the NHS, in health research and in health related charities.

NASS physiotherapy and hydrotherapy initiative up for an award

NASS is delighted to have been named as a finalist at the 2017 AbbVie Patient as Partner Awards. The awards recognise, celebrate and share exceptional examples of improvements and innovation that demonstrate clear benefit to the lives of patients.…

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Participants sought for study on pain and Medicines Use Review

Accredited pharmacists in England, Wales and Northern Ireland can offer an enhanced patient service called a Medicines Use Review (MUR). This structured review is free to patients, and is designed primarily to help them manage their medicines more effectively. Little is known about how often this service is used for people living with pain. We know little about pharmacists’ and pain patients’ views of what happens in pain-related MURs, or why they don’t engage, and what they would like to happen.…

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New report from industry Medical Technology Group finds hip replacements will save the UK economy £700m

A not-for-profit organisation comprising patient groups, research charities and medical device manufacturers– the Medical Technology Group – released a report on 29 November 2017 called ‘Keeping Britain Working: How medical technology can help reduce the cost of ill health to the UK economy’

www.mtg.org.uk/major-studies.

This report updated the 2011 report by the Work Foundation into the value of Medical Technology to society and identified how better use of medical technology can help the Government save up to £476m in welfare spending through improved use of medical technology.…

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Inflammatory Arthritis Toolkit

The British Society for Rheumatology has launched the Inflammatory Arthritis toolkit in partnership with the Royal College for GPs and health professionals. Designed to facilitate earlier treatment for this condition, this toolkit aims to be a user-friendly guide to inflammatory arthritis for primary care professionals, people affected by arthritis and clinical commissioning groups.

The RCPG have also provided a summary here.

Guest blog: Improving quality in orthopaedic care

by Mark Brandreth, NOA Lead CEO and
CEO of the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

As the new lead CEO for the National Orthopaedic Alliance (NOA), I am proud to be part of a group of organisations and people who are working to drive improvements in orthopaedic care nationwide. I’m pleased to have been given the opportunity to contribute a guest blog to ARMA’s newsletter to share an update on our work with you. At Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH), our work with the NOA, and its vanguard work in particular, is vital to our future – and to the future of orthopaedic care received by patients across the country.…

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ARMA Chair Tony Woolf receives international recognition

Chair of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance Receives Top Honor from American College of Rheumatology

Professor Tony Woolf was honored with the designation of Master by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) during the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in San Diego. Recognition as a Master is one of the highest honors that the ACR bestows on its distinguished members.

The designation of Master is conferred on ACR members who have made outstanding contributions to the field of rheumatology through scholarly achievement and/or service to their patients, students, and the rheumatology profession and are age 65 or older.…

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Strength in numbers

There are many reasons for organisations working in collaboration with others. Over the years I have worked to influence health and care policy I have seen many changes which could never have happened if organisations had not worked together on issues of common concern, even where opinions may differ on other issues.

Bone and Joint week 2017 in October showed how, with a bit of co-ordination, we can work together to speak louder than any one organisation alone. Bone and Joint Week is an international opportunity to raise awareness of issues related to all things musculoskeletal.…

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Lessons from traditional Chinese acupuncture – Adding value to life

Guest Blog by Paul Hitchcock, Chief Executive, The British Acupuncture Council

I recently spoke at an NHS England event for International Day for Older People, my talk being titled “Lessons from traditional Chinese acupuncture – adding value to life”. We know we have a demographic challenge here in the UK and we talk about an ageing population that will see an increase of around one million people over the age of sixty five in the next three years. In China the number is closer to three hundred million, although the approach there is not to use age as the differentiator but the person’s overall health and wellbeing – an approach that is also now starting to be applied here in the UK.…

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