Slightly bothered by the fact that the headlines (and not just in this paper) read 'arthritis' and once again rheumatoid disease is lumped in with general arthritis, thereby lowering the public's understanding of exactly what rheumatoid disease is. Although osteoarthritis is mentioned in the article there is no implication that the drug currently undergoing human trials will be of benefit to patients with osteoarthritis. Surely to raise our profile in the public domain we need to be called Rheumatoid Disease sufferers, so that perhaps people will sit up and take notice of the change?

This does look an exciting breakthrough - watch this space! As always it could be some years for the drug trials to be completed.

But any positive news like this is so welcome, also that research is being done all the time on our behalf giving much hope to future generations.

Sometimes wish they would use younger models in photos when talking about RA though, makes more impact on the general public I think!
xx

I hope the "model" gave her fee to NRAS !!. It's nice to know that
Prof..Panayi is still on our case and that his research is proving
valuable. Perhaps one or two drops of my blood have helped.
We were always asked for an extra tube "for research". Anne

I live in a town that has a very high elderly population and I can't count how many times I have been told I am 'too young to have RA'. It gets tiring.

Dear all

Please see latest press release from NRAS:


Introduction of Best Practice Tariff for early inflammatory arthritis

The National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society welcomes the introduction of a new Best Practice Tariff for early inflammatory arthritis including rheumatoid arthritis, a condition that an estimated 690,000 people in the UK live with.

It has been widely acknowledged that the best chance for newly diagnosed patients to achieve clinical remission is to be started on treatment within twelve weeks of symptom onset, however this does not routinely usually happen. This Best Practice Tariff provides a financial incentive to secondary care providers that will hopefully end any variation in the treatment given between different areas of the country and enable all patients to receive evidence based and timely treatment.

As of April 2013, people who develop inflammatory arthritis should expect:

• To be seen by a rheumatologist within three weeks of a GP referral
• To receive their diagnosis and start treatment within six weeks of a GP referral
• To have regular review appointments with their rheumatologist until their arthritis is adequately controlled.

More can be found on our website here: http://www.nras.org.uk/c...ammatory_arthritis.aspx

Best wishes,
Emma

the story of the young bride......what a lovely story having her elbows done so she has independance, and her husband does not need to help her out.
I put comments on the daily mail saying how happy I am for them!

Its amazing what the surgeons can do.
X