Arthritis and Connective Tissue Disease flares are normal but do have an impact on every aspect of your life. In simple terms a flare can be described as “a sudden increased severity in symptoms that can hit at any time”.
For many patients having a flare is disheartening, they feel that they have been managing their arthritis/connective tissue disease well and doing all the right things by taking their medication regularly and maintaining a healthy balance of exercise and activity, then one day they wake up and feel like it was all for nothing.…
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The first UK guideline on the care of adults with systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus) was published by the British Society of Rheumatology at the start of October 2017. The clinical guideline is accredited by the National Institute for Health and care Excellence (NICE) which recognises robust, evidence-based and critically evaluated high-quality processes applied to developing a guideline. The eagerly anticipated guideline covers diagnosis, assessment, monitoring and treatment of patients with mild, moderate and severe lupus and is mainly for health professionals in secondary care.… 
The British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) is pleased to announce the recent publication of four revised commissioning guides with the Royal College of Surgeons of England. These NICE-accredited guides set out best practice care pathways to assist CCGs in designing optimal care for their populations. We are extremely grateful to all those involved in the rigorous development and accreditation processes. The guides, which can be found here, are:
The annual PCRS Conference in York features a highly respected hands-on, friendly educational conference for GPSIs in MSK + Rheumatology where you can learn from, build contacts and mix with your peers.
The National Osteoporosis Society is pleased to announce that it will shortly be launching a new Research Strategy and grants funding round. The upcoming launch reiterates the continued and central importance that research has within the Charity.
NRAS will be launching its work report, Work Matters, in Parliament on 11th October. We are delighted that the Minister for Disabled People, Work and Health, Penny Mordaunt MP, will be joining us at the event. You can follow the proceedings live on twitter by following 
Guest blog by Catherine Pope, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, Chair.
The National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society are sad to report that after six years with NASS as Chief Executive, Debbie Cook is moving on, out of the medical health sector. During her time with NASS Debbie has overseen the transformation of the charity into one that AS charities around the world aspire to emulate. 
