MSK & Arthritis News

Royal Osteoporosis Society launches its largest ever survey

The Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS) has launched its 2021 ‘Life with osteoporosis’ survey, to help understand the impact of osteoporosis on the lives of people living with the condition.

Following the previous ‘Life with osteoporosis’ survey conducted in 2014, the ROS aims for this to be the largest survey of its kind – so please share it with relevant audiences.

The survey is open to anyone living with osteoporosis and the results will be used to:

  • build a full picture of what it’s like to live with osteoporosis, including its impact on day-to-day life, relationships, independence and body image
  • inform an APPG Inquiry to engage parliamentarians and improve NHS services
  • understand whether people’s experiences of living with osteoporosis have changed since the last survey took place in 2014, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

The survey is open until Thursday 8 July 2021 and takes around 15-25 minutes to complete.…

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New booklet: Medicines in JIA

NRAS is pleased to announce the launch of its new JIA booklet Medicines in JIA. The focus of the booklet is on the medicines that are used to treat JIA, but it also contains information about what parents and young people with JIA can expect at every stage from diagnosis to ongoing long-term care, showing that medicines are only one part of treatment.

The new booklet can be ordered or downloaded for free from the JIA website.

NRAS Upcoming Events:

  • Thurs 1st July, 4pm – Facebook Live: COVID and Inflammatory Arthritis Update with Prof.


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The AHP’s role in tackling health inequalities

The King's Fund logoEvery allied health professional plays an important role in tackling health inequalities. The 14 allied health professional bodies, Public Health England, NHS England and NHS Improvement have worked with The King’s Fund to develop a simple framework to help any allied health professional consider their role in tackling health inequalities.

The framework has been created to help AHPs to find their own unique role in this and to explore ways to maximise their contribution. It was created in collaboration with AHPs from across the 14 professional groups.…

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BackCare’s pain management webinar

The basis of the webinar was to provide a closer insight into back pain whatever the cause and to evaluate alleviating back pain from three different angles, these being: therapies, minimally invasive surgery and medication, with each area represented by an expert in the field.

Dr Brian Hammond PhD, Vice President of the National Back Pain Association (more commonly known as BackCare) discussed therapies; Dr Basil Almahdi, Consultant Pain Specialist analysed surgery and minimally invasive treatments of problems caused by degenerative spinal disease; and Dr Anthony Ordman, past president of the pain medicine section of the Royal Society of Medicine, reviewed medicines with a special interest in cannabinoids.…

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iO council lay professional sought

iO CouncilThe Institute of Osteopathy (iO) is looking for a lay professional to join the iO council, who has a drive to contribute to the development of osteopathy in the UK. If you, or someone you know, are experienced in the broad health market, such as policy or educational development and are passionate about positively impacting the nation’s health then the iO want to hear from you.

NOA wellbeing workshops

Using feedback from staff at member organisations, the National Orthopaedic Alliance developed a series of wellbeing workshops which kicked off in May. Upcoming sessions covering Spotting & Preventing Burnout and Resilience – Recharge the Inner Battery are being run for the NOA by Work Well Being.

Find out more about upcoming sessions on the NOA website.

Psychologically-informed Practice for Health Professionals webinar

The Health Innovation Network is hosting a webinar on Psychologically-informed Practice for Health Professionals, sharing learning from their recent work.

Therapeutic Interactions and Person-centred Care Skills (TIPS) is an innovative and evidence-based training and supervision package for physiotherapists and other health professionals working with patients presenting with pain. Join us to hear from pain experts on how using a psychologically informed approach in patient consultations can lead to better conversations, patient experience and outcomes.

The webinar will be chaired by Diarmuid Denneny – chair of the Physiotherapy Pain Association and lead physiotherapist at the Pain Management Centre (PMC), the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.…

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Recommendations for the implementation of self-management strategies in IA

NRAS’ National Patient Champion Ailsa Bosworth is the joint convenor (with Elena Nikiphorou, King’s) and a senior author of the paper entitled ‘2021 EULAR recommendations for the implementation of self-management strategies in patients with inflammatory arthritis’ published in the Annuls of Rheumatic Disease last week. These important recommendations come at a crucial time when rheumatology teams are reviewing how they deliver patient-centred care going forward as we come out of the pandemic, and will be presented at EULAR 2021 in June in a session on ‘Mastering Self-management: State of art in a New Era.’…

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The College of Podiatry proposes solution to foot surgery waiting lists

COP logoAs the waiting lists continue to rise there are challenges in managing the surgical workload created from pausing services during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Foot and ankle complications arise in 30% of the population and surgical intervention can give an immediate solution to many as well as providing an alternative intervention for those receiving continued conservative care. Podiatric surgery has been established as a specialist service for over 40 years and can assist in providing a cost-effective solution for reducing elective foot surgery waiting times.…

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Equality, diversity and inclusion

Sue Brown, CEOby Sue Brown, CEO ARMA

One of the priorities identified by our members for 2021 was health inequalities. We’ve recently begun discussing how this relates to MSK and what ARMA and our members might be able to do. In the course of discussions, I’ve discovered a few things which have surprised and shocked me. For instance, some newly qualified MSK professionals are choosing not to work in the NHS because of the level of racism they have experienced in NHS settings.…

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