Garreth | Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance

Not just another NHSE initiative

I have just returned from the BSR conference where it was good to catch up with ARMA members, key stakeholders and make new connections. Watching the contributions of patient organisations to the conference I was struck again by the huge role that the voluntary sector can play in good MSK health.

So, it is good to see this feature increasingly in the BestMSK Health messaging. Phrases such as “consider referral to third sector/voluntary sector for ongoing management rehabilitation and support” appear in many of the programme’s resources.…

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ARMA Trustee elections

Ever thought of becoming a trustee of ARMA?

The ARMA Board consists of nine trustees elected by the membership and up to four co-opted trustees, who are appointed by the Board. Nominations for election to the Board are open until 20 May 2022. You will need a connection with one of our member organisations and to be nominated by a member organisation.

Trustees are responsible for the governance, strategy and management of the charity. They contribute to the strategic development of the organisation and the delivery of its services, taking part in Board meetings and in other activities between meetings as required.…

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BestMSK Health update

New resources for the BestMSK Health programme have been added to the NHS Futures site, including the Primary and Community Care toolkit and a revised high impact strategy including new recommendations on paediatrics and self-management. All the resources are aimed at anyone at any level involved in improving MSK services. The High Impact Strategy contains a lot of recommendations, but most people only need to read the core recommendations and those for their specific area of work.

The launch webinar should be available on the site soon.…

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Equity, Diversity and Belonging (EDB) Awareness Tool

PhysioFirst and the CSP LGBTQIA+ network have collaboratively run a project with stakeholders to promote EDB within the recognised Professional Networks (PN) of the CSP. The outcome of this project, which was structured as a series of three facilitated meetings attended by each participating Professional Network, is the first version of an EDB reflective awareness tool.

The aim of this awareness tool is to prompt, guide and support the Leadership Teams of all PNs to open the conversation and to reflect on equity, diversity and belonging within their own network and how they align with the CSP’s EDB Strategy.…

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Therapy Expo Partnership

BASRaT is proud to partner with Therapy Expo this year and has nominated speakers across a range of topics, including: women’s health; persistent pain; S&C in non-elite populations; MSK ultrasound and many more.

The BASRaT team is looking forward to meeting more of our registrants in person. Therapy Expo takes place 23 – 24 of November 2022 at Birmingham NEC.

PCRMM Annual Conference 2022 – Save the Date

“MSK Across Multi-Disciplinary First Contact Care”
11 and 12 November 2022
ONLINE

The Primary Care Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Medicine Society is delighted to announce this year’s conference. The success of past conferences engenders motivation for the Society to try and improve each year and offer more of what will educate, stimulate and benefit you all.

SAVE THE DATE!

The timetable will be available soon, check their website for details and updates.

PCRMM webinar – Managing Low Back Pain and Sciatica

Tuesday 31 May, 7 – 8:30pm

This engaging and extremely interesting webinar will be given by Ian Bernstein and Dan Bourke; they explore what works and what doesn’t work for managing low back pain and sciatica in primary and community care.
They combine a review of NICE guidelines with a discussion about how they implement them in practice.

Questions that they will discuss include:

‘will my patient get better?’ – managing their expectations;
minimising harm – who should be imaged and what to prescribe;
how and when to de-prescribe – new NICE guidance in April;
‘is it really that simple?’

…

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Blood matters

Blood Matters is the new National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) guide to the blood tests used in managing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and adult juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).

Blood tests are an important part of both the diagnosis and monitoring of RA and JIA, but the different tests, abbreviations and numbers can be confusing, and it might not always be clear to you what the purpose of each test is, why it’s important and what the results mean.

NRAS has created this resource because they strongly believe that having a good understanding of your blood tests is important to help you to manage your condition and improve outcomes.…

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Bone Matters

The Royal Osteoporosis Society has launched their new #BoneMatters programme, a series of online expert information events.

The first webinar of the series is on Medication Support: helping people make informed decisions about recommended osteoporosis drug treatment. Join the ROS on Tuesday 17 May to hear from leading experts Dr Nicky Peel, Dr Zoe Paskins and Professor David Armstrong on key topics to help you make decisions about your osteoporosis drug treatment.

Topics include:

What’s new in drug treatments
Understanding side effects or health risks
Getting the most out of your medication

Get full details and tickets here

How treating my rheumatic disease has influenced my hopes for the future

Guest blog by Chantal Lyons. This essay was the national selection entry winner for the UK for the Edgar Stene Prize 2022

Everything changed in the year I turned twenty-three. In the spring, I began to run, dragging my unfit body off the sofa and into the local park. In the summer, I began to dream of running the London Marathon like my father had. And in the autumn, I could no longer ignore the white-hot pain growing in my hips and back.…

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