Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance
Influencing policy and care together for best lifelong musculoskeletal health
Innovative multi-professional student placement project shows positive outcomes
A pilot in Allied Health Professions student placements, funded by Health Education England and facilitated by the Institute of Osteopathy, has shown how an innovative interprofessional approach can deliver positive outcomes for students and educators, ultimately facilitating improved patient outcomes through the delivery of multi-disciplinary care.
Read more on the iO website.
A new report More than Skin Deep: The Underlying Burdens of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis has been published, setting out the challenges currently faced by people living with these chronic, interlinked conditions, and providing a number of key recommendations for improving services.
The report, aimed at policymakers, healthcare professionals and NHS commissioners, has been informed by the input of an expert working group, including leading clinicians from dermatology and rheumatology, as well as representatives from the Psoriasis Association and Versus Arthritis.…
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Guest blog by Dr Arash Angadji, Chief Executive, Orthopaedic Research UK
I was talking to a PhD student who has recently received one of our fellowship grants to research the use of statistical modelling to help better predict patient outcomes, who told me, ‘I am part of that generation that has grown up with computers, so It feels natural to ask how we can we exploit this technology. We are all getting more on board with the idea of smart technology and wearable devices and questioning why we are not applying these technologies to our patients.’…
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A new national trial is recruiting people with rare autoimmune diseases to measure their COVID-19 antibody response following at least 3 vaccinations.
The MELODY study is recruiting immunocompromised people to determine the antibody levels they develop in response to COVID-19 vaccination.
The MELODY study aims to:
In her most recent blog about the changes in the healthcare landscape caused by the pandemic, our National Patient Champion, Ailsa Bosworth MBE reflects on how these changes will impact on the care of people with RA and Adult JIA. She considers how it has become even more important for those with these autoimmune conditions to be able to learn about their disease and acquire skills and coping strategies to enable better supported self-management, and Ailsa explains how NRAS can help with this.…
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The British Society of Rheumatology recently published its National Early Inflammatory Arthritis Audit report (opens in PDF) focusing on the association between ethnicity, processes of care and health outcomes, highlighting the variation between ethnic groups.
Some of the report’s key findings include:
The report concludes that there appears to be equality in provision of care at the start of the patient journey, but the outcomes highlight the imbalance in equity.…
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Important news for South Asian people with RA/PsA! NRAS has launched two new videos in Punjabi on the early inflammatory arthritis pathway which feature GP patient consultation and members of the multi-disciplinary team describing their roles. Please share widely.
You can view the videos here:
#SolvingTogether is an initiative to capture, assess, test and share ideas that support elective recovery. It was initiated by Director of Transformation for NHS England and Improvement Tim Ferris. It takes the form of a crowdsourcing platform where people can post ideas, backed up by tweet chats.
The major phase of #SolvingTogether will start in mid-February 2022. It will consist of six challenges that we will ask a huge range of people to respond to: people working at the point of care, service users and families, clinical and managerial leaders, partners in other sectors and clinical innovators and entrepreneurs.…
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Lord Black’s amendment to the Health and Care Bill calling for equal access to FLS
On 20 January 2022, the House of Lords were again debating the Health and Care Bill and Lord Black of Brentwood put forward an amendment to the Bill which would make Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) a core service offered by the NHS in England.
Lord Black’s amendment received cross-party support and was co-signed by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, Lord Rennard and Baroness Masham of Ilton.…
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The updated rheumatology PIFU (Patient Initiated Follow-Up) guidance is now on NHS England and NHS Improvement’s FutureNHS platform. The document is aimed at clinicians, service managers and commissioners the guidance supports the appropriate, safe, and sustainable implementation and delivery of PIFU for people with rheumatological conditions who are under the care of adult rheumatology services.
See it on the FutureNHS platform (account required).
The guidance can be viewed in “draft” form at this link, once signed off, it will be published on the NHSE website.…
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