
Rehabilitation News
from Rehabilitation Matters
This page has items of news that I find interesting. [News can be defined as being ‘new to me‘, not always brand new!] Items depend completely on what I get to hear or see. You may send items you think I should include if you wish. (Items promoting commercial products or services will not be covered.) Old pages will be archived, monthly, and can be reviewed here.
Week beginning November 1st 2021
Podcast number two – what is brilliant about rehabilitation
Jo Corrado and Juliet Reid interview another rehabilitation doctor about what excites him about his work. At present, it is the rehabilitation of patients with problems after Covid infection. He leads (with others) the Leeds service which is the home of the LOCOMOTION research project (see here). The podcast can be accessed (easily) here.
Week beginning October 4th
October 6th 2021. 15.20hrs. BSRM FaceBook page started
The British Society of Rehabilitation Medicine has opened (is that the right word) a FaceBook page. (here) Its handle (is that the right term?) is @RehabMedicineUK. It was set up by Dr Shigong Guo and Ms Marlene Worrell, who know more about FaceBook than I do. It would be difficult to know less than me. Please visit it. Please add comments to it and use it.
Week beginning September 27th
September 29th 2021. 09.00hrs. NICE guideline committee
September 28th 2021. 09.00hrs. Patellofemoral pain checklist
September 27th 2021. 14.55hrs. Cardiff University database
Cardiff University have just launched a freely accessible database of over 200 technological tools for use in rehabilitation. You can access the list publicly using the following: username = PublicUser password = User2021! (note added ! ). To gain access to more you need to register personally but it is still free. Click here.
Week beginning September 20th
September 22nd 20021. 21.15hrs. Rehab prize
The Medipex NHS Innovation Awards 2021, management of long-term conditions category was won jointly by the Leeds Long COVID community rehabilitation service, and by Dr Manoj Sivan and colleagues who also worked with the same community team.
For more details, visit this site.
Week beginning September 13th
September 15th 2021. 22.00hrs. Podcasts on Rehab
Two doctors, Joanna Corrado and Juliet Reid, both from Leeds, discuss what they find exciting and interesting about Rehabilitation Medicine as a medical specialty. This is the first podcast in a series. Publicise it to medical students and Foundation Year doctors. The podcast is here.
If you are not from the UK, every doctor spends two years learning the basics after qualification, before starting to specialise, and specialisation includes in General Practice (family medicine).
September 15th 2021. 11.30 hrs. Rehab Roundup started
A new Twitter account has started – Rehab Roundup, @rehabroundup1 – with the goal of persuading doctors in training that Rehabilitation Medicine is the best specialty. And, of course, I agree wholeheartedly. This website has pages that should interest doctors who know little about rehabilitation, for example here.
September 15th 2021. 09.15hrs. Health inequalities
Today the Royal College of Physicians (London) published a position paper on health inequalities, available here. This is accompanied by a letter to the UK prime minister, Mr. Johnson, which has been signed by very many organisations including the British Society of Rehabilitation Medicine. A copy of the letter is here, and the College news page is here.
This topic is of great importance to anyone working in rehabilitation. (It should be of great importance to everyone, including all Members of Parliament.) Poverty and the other factors associated with health inequality all lead to increased disability, both more people with disability and greater severity of the disability.
Conversely, disability is associated with and often leads to poverty, more stress, and other consequences that lead to greater health inequality.
Week beginning August 23rd
August 25th. 21.30 hrs. NICE consultation – child rehab
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have a draft guideline on “Disabled children and young people up to 25 with severe complex needs: integrated service delivery and organisation across health, social care and education.” It is out for consultation. It can be downloaded and read here. Consultation is open up to September 14th 2021.
If you are involved with paediatric rehabilitation, or with the transfer of patients from paediatric to adult rehabilitation services, you should read this and comment directly or through your professional organisation. Now.
August 25th 2021. 20-45hrs. WHO long covid rehab guide
The World Health Organisation has just published “Support for rehabilitation: self-management after COVID-19-related illness, 2nd ed.“. (see here) This has been written by the Leeds rehabilitation team.
This should be helpful to all patients with Long Covid, and all rehabilitation teams should download the document, (here) read it and use it.
August 24th 2021. 20.20 hrs. SRR new website
The Society for Research in Rehabilitation has a new website. (here) Looks good. (top banner showing the menu needs a better background so that it is seen!) Visit it.
August 24th 2021. 20.15hrs. Newsletter from SRR
The Society for Research in Rehabilitation has published it August newsletter. Anyone who is not a member (yet) can read it here.
August 24th 2021. 18.30hrs. Rehab. in for BMJ Prize.
The Leeds Long-Covid rehabilitation service led br Dr Stephen Halpin is in the final list of six services being considered for the BMJ (British Medical Journal) Awards 2021, clinical leadership prize. Read more about the candidate services here. The rehabilitation entry is the fourth, starting on the first page. It is an example of close collaboration leading to service integration. Long-Covid rehabiliation is discussed in more detail here. (links to other pages too).
Week beginning August 16th
August 19th 2021 20.45hrs. BSRM newsletter for August
Members of the British Society of Rehabilitation Medicine should have received a newsletter today. But many others might be interested in what is happening, and members may have missed the email. So here is a link to the BSRM website page with the newsletter on it. (here)
August 17th 2021. 20.30hrs. For UK trainees
The details on how to transition to the new curriculum are now on the Joint Royal Colleges Physicians Training Board (JRCPTB) website. The relevant pages are: a news item here; the transition webpage here; and the speciality webpage here, where you will now find, under heading of ‘curriculum’, the curriculum, Rough Guide, mapping from the 2010 to the 2021 curriculum, and the ARCP decision aid. The syllabus is under ‘Forms and Guidance’. Book to see your educational supervisor soon to arrange transfer
Week beginning August 9th 2021
August 14th 2021. 14.30hrs. BSRM/SRR/ACPPLD conference
Anyone interested in the 2021 conference on “Rehab – living and ageing with long-term conditions” on 9th and 10th November 2021 can now (a) apply to see it (it is on-line only, so can be seen anywhere in the world) and (b) submit an abstract. The website is open: press this link (here). It covers complex orthopaedics, frailty, long-COVID rehabilitation. spasticity and contractures, and implementation.
Week beginning August 2nd 2021
August 4th 2021 14.00hrs. Tele-rehabilitation toolkit
The University of Plymouth rehabilitation department has just published a freely available resource covering tele-rehabilitation. It is available here. It contains a mixture of sound advice, quite realistic and not over-optimistic; links to other resources; and evidence. Beware – the home page takes you away from the site.
August 3rd 2021 10.15hrs – a Smartphone app for neurorehab
Just heard about a company developing a SmartPhone app to help people with neurological conditions, especially (I suspect) traumatic brain injury. It is called Alfred. Can be seen at this link. (here) [I have no commercial or other interest or link; they are interested in research.]
August 3rd 2021 10.30hrs. Workforce planning help needed
In my role as Chair of the Rehabilitation Medicine Specialist Advisory Committee, I have received an 80 page questionnaire on workforce planning from Health Education England, where I have to predict change in demand. At this stage this item is for information, but I might like help. Expect a blog and items on Twitter!
August 3rd 2021 17.30hrs. Arm rehab after stroke – research
A new electronic electronic stimulation device developed at Sheffield University is to be subjected to a trial. The clinical lead is Dr Siva Nair, a Consultant Neurologist who also is an expert in rehabilitation and a member of the British Society of Rehabilitation Medicine. He contributed to the recently developed training syllabus. The goal is to reduce spasticity, possibly allowing more functional use to emerge.
A grant of £1.2M has been given by the National Institute for Health Research through its invention for innovation (i4i) funding stream. The title is “A new therapy for post-stroke arm spasticity: Sheffield Adaptive Patterned Electrical Stimulation (SHAPES) – a co-designed system improvement followed by a powered multi-arm randomised control trial.” Its acronym is SHAPES. Further details are given on the NIHR website here, and in a news item here.