MSK Together conference

ARMA’s first ever online multi-disciplinary conference was a great end to a difficult year. We wanted to bring together the whole range of stakeholders from across MSK health, including policy makers and people living with MSK conditions to talk about how we can do things differently and work together.

Two thirds of those completing the feedback described the conference as excellent.

  • Happy to be there for a brilliant day! Well done to all – great discussions, speakers and openly discussing challenges & solutions.


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Urgent and Emergency Musculoskeletal Conditions Requiring Onward Referral

Updated guidance was published in December to support primary and community care practitioners in recognising serious pathology which requires emergency or urgent referral to secondary care in people with new or worsening MSK symptoms. Serious pathology as a cause of MSK conditions is considered rare, but it needs to be managed either as an emergency or as urgent onward referral as directed by local pathways. Any part of the MSK system can be affected.

Emergency conditions are serious pathologies which must be dealt with on the day as an emergency.…

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Guest blog: Representation in the workforce

by Hannah Oladugba, Physiotherapist, ACPT Network

When I first decided to become a physiotherapist, I looked to my search engine (I believe this was ‘ASK Jeeves’ at the time) for as much information on the profession as possible. I quickly found that physiotherapy is, traditionally, a profession that has long been perceived as Caucasian and middle class. And even in more recent years, research has shown that, from 2017 to 2018, only 19% of all UK physiotherapy programme student enrolments were from a Black and minority ethnic background.…

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Helping to straighten the long and winding road

NASS was pleased to work with Dr Helena Marzo-Ortega of Leeds Teaching Hospitals and Simon Whalley from M&F Health to produce a comment piece for The Lancet Rheumatology earlier this month. The article concluded that the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in significant disruption for people living with axial SpA (AS) and the healthcare teams providing the vital NHS services they rely on.

The article shines a light on the difficulties that people living with axial SpA (AS) have had accessing vital services, as well as highlighting the innovative steps that healthcare teams have taken to offer people support during the crisis as well as calling for greater collaboration between policy makers and health care providers to safeguard essential care for people with axial SpA (AS).…

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Versus Arthritis webinar: What do the new NICE guidelines on chronic pain mean for GPs?

We know that managing chronic pain can be one of the most difficult aspects of primary care consultations for both doctors and patients. The new NICE guidelines, due to be published in January, will potentially have huge implications on the traditional way of practice.

Join Versus Arthritis for a free webinar, hosted by Dr Andrew Jackson on the new guidelines.

The webinar will cover:

  • What is in the guidelines and what they mean for doctors and patients;
  • Developing new consultations skills to manage difficult interactions;
  • The principles of medication use;
  • Resources that can help.


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Welcoming new members to ARMA

We are delighted to announce that the McTimoney Chiropractic Association (MCA), one of four Professional Associations in the UK representing the chiropractic profession, has recently joined ARMA.

 

We are also delighted to welcome EQL as associate members. EQL’s Phio Access is a musculoskeletal (MSK) digital triage support tool that uses conversational artificial intelligence to guide patients through an initial assessment of their MSK condition.

The spirit of #MSKTogether

About a year ago ARMA had a vision for a conference that would bring together stakeholders from across the MSK community to think about how we can work better together to improve the lives of people living with MSK conditions. Earlier this week that vision became a reality in the form of the Working Together conference.

The planning started back in January when I began to seek out people who were already doing this well. I had conversations with some amazing people doing incredible work to join up services across systems and to bring about excellent multi-disciplinary working.…

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Joint Action Christmas Appeal

It’s been a year like no other, and while much of the world’s attention has been focused on the disease COVID-19, the needs of people with musculoskeletal disease have not gone away and sadly in many cases the need has grown. We know that thousands of people across the UK have experienced long waits for surgery and cancellations of other medical appointments. The British Orthopaedic Association has continued to focus on the needs of these patients, and Joint Action, its research appeal, is forging ahead with ambitious plans for 2021 to award new grants.…

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BOA Annual Congress 2021 – save the date!

Taking place 21-24 September 2021, the BOA Annual Congress programme will be created around the theme of ‘Tackling Infection‘, with four days of lectures including three days of exhibition being held for the first time at P&J Live, The Event Complex Aberdeen (TECA).

Further information regarding abstracts, programme, speakers, location and more will be on the BOA website in the upcoming months.