December 2009 - The British Society for Rheumatology

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Committee|Reports President 2009 seems to have flown past and as this is the last newsletter of the year, I thought it was a good opportunity to look back at 2009 and to reflect on the many challenges and opportunities that face us in 2010. There have been three key reports during the year that are really helping to raise the profile of rheumatology services. The first, from the King’s Fund, was a consultancy report for the Rheumatology Futures Group. It looked at how patients and rheumatologists viewed the services they received or delivered. The research found that despite the chronic and debilitating nature of the illness, the availability and take-up of systematic guidance for professionals about the appropriate care pathway for RA patients remains limited. Patients with RA struggle to access care and RA is often perceived as being in the shadow of other more common long-term conditions. In particular, the study revealed reports of variation in the nature and quality of RA care leading to fifteen recommendations for action across the RA ‘patient pathway’ in the three domains of initial contact with the NHS, specialist intervention and ongoing care. Following closely behind this was the NICE Rheumatoid Arthritis clinical guideline. This was well received and provides an excellent blue print for the services that we should be providing for our patients with RA. I am sure this will be a useful tool for the rheumatology team when looking at the commissioning of services in the future. In addition, the NICE commissioning guide on the service for the diagnosis and management of RA in adults should be published by the end of the year. The National Audit Office report was a detailed look at services for people with RA across the country. This report is a real ‘call to arms’ for every rheumatology team – it gives details of what services should look like and will be a great tool for us to use to get the services our patients deserve. Dr Deborah Bax, President, BSR Treasurer I am pleased to report that, despite the credit crunch, our finances are in good shape. Income from the conference and Journal has been good and we are on course to break even, or have a small surplus at the end of the year. The problems with direct debit subscriptions have been largely solved with only a few members yet to pay. Membership numbers have not dropped, despite the inconvenience. The budget for 2010 has been set with a small deficit predicted, mainly due to increased resources needed to implement the Strategic Plan and maintain core activity. The Finance and General Purpose Committee is in the process of reorganisation to extend financial projections over a three year period, to develop and modernise the risk register and to assess the financial and resource implications across the organisation of new initiatives coming from the Standing Committees. Finally we are seeking nominations for the Assistant Honorary Treasurer to be elected at the 2010 AGM. A great opportunity to be involved in the development of British rheumatology, to work with colleagues from all over the UK and with an excellent team of professionals at the BSR office. Dr Paul Thompson, Treasurer, BSR This has been a year of change on many fronts. Robert Moots started as the new editor, joined by seven new associate editors. Rheumatology’s impact factor has increased from 4.045 to 4.136. As of 31 October 2009, the Journal received 1,217 manuscripts, an increase of about 12% compared to this time last year. We have trialled the broadcasting of podcasts for the first time, publishing two so far. Each of these has attracted 1,200 downloads per month – far more than podcasts from other major journals published by Oxford University Press. Rheumatology has also undergone a major redesign of the internal layout, which we hope is contemporary yet clear. The new design will be launched with the print volume 49, in January 2010. We have also been commissioning more focused and punchy editorials of a global and topical scope. The Journal published five issues of an excerpted English edition version for middle-eastern countries, with plans to publish another series. Last but not least, we have issued a call for papers for a special issue dedicated to registries in rheumatological and musculoskeletal conditions for print publication of January 2011. We hope that this issue will stimulate interest from both authors and readers. Professor Robert Moots, Editor, Rheumatology New internal layout for Rheumatology 4
Committee|Reports www.rheumatology.org.uk Rheumatology 2011 will be held in Brighton Heberden The Heberden Committee has now finalised the programme for Rheumatology 2010, which looks very exciting. The major change to the traditional format is the development of a three-day conference. This has meant that there is reduced space for extra meetings that groups wish to arrange, but we hope that we have been able to accommodate as many of you as possible. On the day before the conference there will be three independent themed symposia for which separate registration is necessary. Please see the website www.rheumatology.org.uk/conference for more details. We are also now working on 2011. As many of you will be aware EULAR is in London in 2011 so we are planning a different style conference incorporating all the key elements of our traditional meeting. This change of format means that we can visit venues such as Brighton that we have not been to for many years. There has been a strong desire for a Southern venue, but there are no venues south of Birmingham suitable for our traditional meeting at an acceptable cost. Dr Richard Watts, Chair, Heberden Committee External Relations Our major focus continues to be quality. Lord Darzi put quality at the heart of the NHS 1 and emphasised the role of Specialist Societies in developing appropriate quality metrics 2 . Since then, a lot of heat (and rather less light) has been generated in the area through national meetings and torrents of information which we are doing our best to find a way through. We are developing metrics in the three domains of quality care: • Patient experience – we are working with Arthritis Care in this area • Patient safety – we are looking at biologics registry data as a good start • Clinical effectiveness – we will initially focus on the NICE guidance for RA but this can subsequently be adapted to other diseases. Other parallel BSR quality initiatives include national audits (SAGWG) and an examination of peer review (Clinical Affairs) which may fit with the voluntary peer review accreditation system proposed by Lord Darzi. All will be crucial for individual revalidation! ERC has also been kept busy with updating the BSR Action Plan, a review of the results of the National Audit Commission RA survey, liaison with the Comprehensive Clinical Research Network Musculoskeletal Specialty Group and consultations from external bodies like NICE and the RCP. Dr Gabrielle Kingsley, Chair, External Relations Committee 1 www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_101670 2 www.ic.nhs.uk/cqi Clinical Affairs (CAC) As Clinical Advisor to the NICE Rheumatoid Arthritis Management Guidelines I have given talks around the country on the rationale behind the recommendations. The Kings Fund Report commissioned by the Rheumatology Futures Group, and the National Audit Office Report on RA, both demonstrate that we can all do better in providing a high quality service for RA patients. In this regard, the NICE guidelines have been generally welcomed, with colleagues seeing them as an opportunity to demonstrate what a high quality service should look like. Concern has been expressed around implementation, particularly in the current economic climate. I have been working with the Department of Health in drawing up an Inflammatory Arthritis Commissioning Pathway (www.18weeks.nhs.uk/ Content.aspx?path=/achieve-and-sustain/Specialtyfocussed-areas/rheumatology) and with NICE on a Commissioning Guideline for RA to be published later this year. I hope these tools will help colleagues in working with commissioners. Dr Chris Deighton, Chair, Clinical Affairs Committee Education and Training The courses offered by BSR continue to be popular. The Committee is exploring ways of expanding these, including introducing some web-based modules. In addition, there will be a new annual Education Day. Starting next year the Annual Meeting will run for only three days. This has given us the opportunity to introduce a preliminary day – separate from the Annual Meeting itself – which will be devoted to updates in all areas of rheumatology. It is planned to run a five year cycle of such days, over the course of which the whole field of rheumatology will be covered. The cycle will fit in with consultant revalidation, and will also be valuable for rheumatologists in training. The first Education Day will be on Tuesday 20 April 2010. It will include sessions on diagnosis, disease management, clinical decision making and preparation for recertification. The first opportunity for trainees to take the new Specialist Certificate Examination (formerly Knowledge Based Assessment) will be in mid 2010. This examination is being run by the Federation of the Royal Colleges of Physicians: it will almost certainly be in September, and the precise date will be posted on the BSR website as soon as it is known. In the meantime, a small number of sample questions will be made available on the website. Dr Charles Mackworth-Young, Chair, Education and Training Committee 5
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December 2009 - The British Society for Rheumatology

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