Rheumatology.Physio Podcast

We are finishing up this AxSpA series with a bang! I finally managed to get Dr James Noake behind the microphone to talk about AxSpA in Sport and Exercise Medicine. We discuss the patients that attend his clinic, some of his tips, the challenges that this cohort present and the role of SEM Consultants in assessment/management

Psoriasis as we know is a big risk for developing Psoriatic Arthritis. Clinically reasoning who we send to Rheumatology is a little bit of a challenge however. Do you refer a person with Psoriasis and tendon pain? Or do you need more of an inflammatory picture first? 

We don't want to delay diagnosis but we also don't want to over investigate or over medicalise. I discussed one way in a blog about nails. In this video I discuss a paper that looks at Psoriasis, MSK Pain and Ultrasound. We take some useful ideas from it to help with clinical reasoning.

 Unfortunately the paper is not open access but you can find it here. 

The people who have conditions are the voices we need in healthcare to understand not only the effects of the disease but also the processes involved in navigating healthcare systems. Bethany Dawson has had Axial Spondyloarthritis for a number of years and has experienced the good and the bad of these systems. Dale Webb is the CEO of the National Axial Spondyloarthritis Society who work tirelessly to bridge the divide between patients and healthcare.

The information and experience in this podcast are vital if we as MSK Therapists are to understand our place in this landscape. I learned so much from this conversation and you will too.

I didnt think saying "not everyone with joint pain needs an xray" was going to be my controversial opinion when I think Tea is the worst drink ever invented but here we are...

Axial Spondyloarthritis affects "people of childbearing age" which means we need to know the affect it has on pregnancy, birth and symptoms. Unfortunately until recently this information has been quite sparce. Enter Dr Sinead Maguire who is changing this in a hugely positive manner.

In this podcast we cover a lot of ground, the what, why and how does AxSpA affect women during and after pregnancy. Then we go on to talk about effects on the baby as well. A must for anyone seeing women with AxSpA!

Thank you to Novartis for sponsoring this Series of 5 podcasts

In this, the second of a series of five podcasts concentrating on Axial Spondyloarthritis for healthcare clinicians, Jack March - The Rheumatology Physio speaks to Dr. Louise Warburton a GP with Special Interest in Rheumatology all about AxSpA in Primary Care. They go into specific detail about the challenges of Primary Care, which investigations to order and what the results of these investigations mean and referral pathways. Vital information for anyone working in Primary Care and referring roles.

Thank you to Novartis for sponsoring this series of podcasts. Please fill in this feedback survey regarding the podcast to help inform and improve the delivery of CPD materials.

Welcome back Rheumatology fans, trying something new this week as I created my first "Top Tips" video. This weeks video comes from a recent batch of courses I presented, the question was asked a couple of times. How do you differentiate a gout flare from an osteoarthritis flare? After all the symptom profiles and patient demographics are rather similar. The "Top Tips" series is born, you can watch the video below (10 mins) or I have popped the slides below as well which contain the information. Let me know what you think of this format please!

RheumMates is back and oh wow do we cover some ground in this podcast. Faye is a Physio and has Ankylosing Spondylitis.

We cover topics like acceptance of the diagnosis, how her management has varied over time and what happened during her pregnancies. So much to learn in this podcast and I hope it is of use to therapists and women with Axial Spondylitis alike!

Welcome back, its been a while!

Can we be specific in Rheumatology as MSK Therapists, how and when should we be?

Welcome back to the blog! I decided to run a poll on what to publish this week and the results are in! Reactive Arthritis just edged out Sjogrens Syndrome so we will get to that next time. Reactive Arhtritis has gained a little bit of attention recently in Rheumatology circles although I suspect this has passed many of us by so I hope this blog provides some more detail. It is relatively rare, 30-40/10000 but i have seen it a few times in MSK clinics and Orthopaedics over the years.

Welcome back to the blog! A change of pace from recognition this month as we look at actually treating/managing/rehabbing! Exercise is a vital component of Rheumatoid Arthritis management and unfortunately people with RA fear it and don't reach their targets for activity.

The recurrent features are back with legend of the blog and music with Kasabian at the bottom of the page.

Jack March is here for what will be the first of the Rheumatology TakeOvers a regular segment commenting on Rheumatology topics as they relate to the MSK world. Today he discusses delay to diagnosis and asks, what will YOU do about it?

I can't tell you how excited I am about this podcast! 

Professor Dasgupta is AMAZING, he has led the line on writing PMR guidelines, developing fast track clinics, teaching Rheumatology and just generally being an awesome guy.

We delve deep into PMR from a primary care perspective, he gives excellent detail on recognition, management, investigation, differential diagnoisis, diagnostic uncertainty and wow, this might take a couple of listens!

Thank you to @TaiwanOzPhysio for bringing a paper to my attention which is used as the basis for this blog post (see reference at the end).

Clearly recognising rheumatology conditions is of interest to me… This paper is interesting because it literally attempted to test this skill in Physiotherapists, we will talk a little bit about it in this post.

Jack and Mike spoke with David Goyette this week, a Podiatric Surgeon about feet. We cover absolutely tons of ground and its a clinical golden nugget a minute as we cover gout, SpA and RA issues of the foot!

Another Blog on Rheumatology.Physio this time all about nails and a specific issue seen in Psoriatic Arthritis called Onchyolysis. Recorded Live over social media.