We need to be speaking the language of decision-makers and commissioners
Whether at the individual, organisational or indeed national level, when we scan the horizon in front of us and try to set out the path ahead for ourselves, it is occasionally useful also to look back at where we have come from. ARMA began life in 1972 as the British League Against Rheumatism, and in…
Transforming care for people with MSK conditions
Over the past 20 years of working as a special ist nurse, I have witnessed first-hand the changing face of care for people with Musculoskeletal conditions (MSK) – particularly Rheumatoid Arthritis – leading to better outcomes for patients. This can, in part, be attributed to advances in treatment strategies, including biologic therapies, but is also…
Guest Blog: RightCare and MSK: increasing value and reducing variation
It’s now six months since NHS RightCare was launched nationally. This involved 65 local health economies (‘wave one’) receiving support and facilitation to embed the approach, and we’re still growing as a programme to roll out to the 144 remaining health economies in England at the end of 2016. Things are progressing at pace with…
Guest Blog: All hands on deck to tackle rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases
by Dr Peter Lanyon, Consultant Rheumatologist, Nottingham University Hospital; President, British Society for RheumatologyTwo months ago, at our annual national conference on the banks of the Clyde, it was a privilege to start my elected term of office as President of the British Society for Rheumatology. And I’m very excited to be serving BSR in…
Guest Blog: Implementing the national clinical audit recommendations
The first annual report was published in January and revealed wide variation in care across England and Wales. This is consistent with how other national audits have reported in their first year and we expect to identify where improvements have been made following the analysis for the 2nd cohort. To date, we have disseminated the…
Guest Blog – Nursing and MSK
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN)’s Society of Orthopaedic and Trauma Nursing (SOTN) is a professional forum with approximately 3,000 nurses who work in diverse roles within primary and secondary care. This diversity can be a strength, but it can also be a weakness: we are everywhere but spread thinly in places, so sometimes it…
Guest Blog: Fracture Liaison Services
By Anne Thurston, Health Sector Relations Manager, National Osteoporosis Society This week, 18 months’ worth of furious activity finally came together in the launch of our Fracture Liaison Service (FLS) resources. This makes me so happy that I can’t think of it without doing a happy dance in my head! Let’s start at the beginning….
Guest Blog: Getting it Right First Time
by Mike Kimmons CB, Chief Executive, British Orthopaedic Association On Monday 16 March, the BOA launched the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) report. GIRFT was commissioned in 2013 by the Secretary of State for Health and NHS England and published with their agreement. Evidence-based and solutions-oriented, the GIRFT team used multiple sources to compile…
Guest Blog: The Need for Competency-Based Commissioning
As we all know back pain is the single biggest cause of disability in the UK according to the Global Burden of Disease Report. Despite this huge cost both in human and financial terms, care can often appear to be disjointed. In 2009 NICE published guidelines on the Management of persistent non-specific low back pain…
Guest Blog – Chief Cooks and Bottle Washers?
In the European Union, a disease is defined as rare when it affects less than 1 in 2000 people. The European Commission defines rare diseases as ‘life-threatening or chronically debilitating diseases which are of such low prevalence that special combined efforts are needed to address them’. With 15 systemic vasculitis disease phenotypes and several subsets,…