Category: Treatments & Therapies

Right on Time campaign

Versus Arthritis is campaigning to ensure that everyone who needs a joint replacement gets timely access to treatment. Hundreds of thousands of joint replacement operations take place each year. More than 90% of people who have hip and knee replacements have osteoarthritis.

At the end of February, Versus Arthritis released figures revealing that, in one year alone, almost 30,000 people with arthritis in England waited more than the guaranteed 18-weeks to start treatment. This has been featured in the Telegraph, with more coverage to follow.…

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NRAS accessing advanced therapies

Accessing Advanced Therapies (biologics, biosimilars, oral JAK inhibitors)

For some time, NRAS has been concerned that some Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) have been artificially restricting access to advanced therapies (biologics, biosimilars/JAK inhibitors) and undertook a Freedom of Information request to all CCGs about this. Following discussions with NHS England on behalf of RA patients about this practice, which was felt to be unethical, NRAS is delighted to share with you news of the attached recently published statement from the NHS Regional Medicines Optimisation Committee.…

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NICE Quality Standard – Rheumatoid arthritis in over 16s

In January 2020, NICE published an update on the Quality Standard for rheumatoid arthritis in over 16s (QS33). This quality standard covers assessing, diagnosing and managing rheumatoid arthritis in over 16s. It describes high-quality care in priority areas for improvement.

NICE thanked organisations that submitted comments during the consultation period. All consultation comments were considered by the advisory committee (QSAC) and are documented in the minutes of this meeting.

Also available on the website is a summary of the consultation comments prepared by the NICE quality standards team and the full set of consultation comments.…

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Feedback on NICE behaviour change guideline

NICE is developing a guideline on Behaviour change: digital and mobile health interventions and ARMA has been invited to register as a stakeholder.

Behaviour change interventions have been considered in relation to the following areas:

  • eating patterns
  • physical activity
  • smoking
  • harmful drinking
  • sexual health
  • mental wellbeing

The consultation for this guideline opened on Friday 24 January. It will close at 5pm on Friday 6 March. If your organisation would like to have the opportunity to comment, you will first need to register as a stakeholder.…

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New webinar: Cauda equina syndrome

What everyone working with back pain needs to know about Cauda equina syndrome

Friday 21 February 2020, 12.30pm

Cauda equina syndrome (CES) is a rare condition that affects the nerves in the spine supplying the bladder, bowel and sexual function. Identification and subsequent urgent action is required to avoid permanent damage to these essential organs. Delays in diagnosis can have devastating and life changing consequences for patients and result in high cost negligence claims.

This webinar will be of interest to any health professional treating patients with low back pain, particularly those seeing this patient group in pre-surgical settings.…

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BASRAT Sport Rehabilitation brought to life

BASRaT registrar Ollie Coburn has produced a short video illustrating his profession.

Sport Rehabilitators aid people with musculoskeletal pain, injury or illness. They help people to maintain their health and fitness, recover from and prevent injury and reduce pain using exercise, movement and therapy.

The video “Sport Rehabilitation brought to life in 38 seconds!” can be viewed here.

NICE: Guselkumab for treating active psoriatic arthritis

Draft Scope Consultation

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has been asked to consider an appraisal of guselkumab for treating active psoriatic arthritis after inadequate response to DMARDs ID1658.

NICE invited organisations to take part in the consultation to discuss the draft remit and scope. The organisations selected as stakeholders are listed here and the draft scope that is being consulted on can be found here.

The consultation closes on Wednesday 18 December 2019. If you have any queries regarding this scoping exercise or would like to be involved you can contact Michelle Adhemar, Scoping Project Manager at scopingta@nice.org.uk…

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Stretches for your daily life

NASS has just released a new series of videos showing how everyone living with axial spondyloarthritis (axial SpA) – including people with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) – can fit some simple but very effective stretches into their daily life.

No Lycra. No trainers. No gym.

These videos were developed with with a group of specialist axial SpA (AS) physiotherapists from AStretch. They include stretches which patients can do in bed in the morning and stretches for while waiting for the kettle to boil, at the kitchen table and on the sofa to name a few.…

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SOMM Musculoskeletal core capabilities framework

The Society of Musculoskeletal Medicine (SOMM) has produced a short paper mapping capabilities within the published ‘Musculoskeletal core capabilities framework for first point of contact practitioners’* to the Society’s course provision.  

The domains identified within the framework provide categories for the capabilities that underpin first contact practice. Practitioners can be signposted to appropriate modules to facilitate the development of the advanced skills required for their MSK First Contact Practitioner (FCP) role. The Society’s programme of courses already accommodates key capabilities that learners across a range of health professions need, to be able to develop as FCPs.…

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Have you visited Moving Medicine yet?

Last October, Moving Medicine was launched by the Honourable Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. The free, evidence-based resources, available at movingmedicine.ac.uk support high quality conversations on physical activity across a broad range of chronic diseases including musculoskeletal pain, inflammatory rheumatic conditions and primary prevention, to mention a few.

The resources are all developed with experts, healthcare professionals and patients, and are endorsed by professional bodies and charities, including ARMA. Whether you have 1 minute, 5 minutes, or more minutes to speak with patients about physical activity, Moving Medicine will help support this. …

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