See this report on the new glasgow based centre of excellence on RA. This looks to be a wonderful resource

[cathie]

scotsman.com/news/health/un...

[nomoreheels]

Promising indeed. If any there are any more reports please post them to keep us in the link.

[cathie in reply to nomoreheels]

Will do. There might be stuff around the launch so could be a bit repetitive. Theres interesting stuff going on in Glasgow around physio for knee replacements. I first heard of this via Arthritis Research UK

[nomoreheels in reply to cathie]

Then I officially recommend you as our eyes & ears of Scottish reporting of RD as of today! Seriously though, it sounds as if north of the border is investing more than ours is at present, unless that is our's don't want us to know just yet! Yeah like that's it!! lol

[cathie]

we've had a separate, slightly different NHS here since 1947, but there are lots of crossovers (except for privatisation). So even if we do vote for independence there will still be sharing.

i'm happy to keep you all up to speed on this one - I hope it does make a difference

[nomoreheels in reply to cathie]

I haven't kept up to date with all the ins & outs with the NHS should we divide & didn't want to stir up a hornets nest as I know some Scots aren't forthcoming about it all so thanks for telling us that. Glad you took my cheeky proposal as intended though as it does make sense as you're based where it's all going on.

[cathie in reply to nomoreheels]

There's been quite a bit of discussion about the NHS and priorities, but the key things we do know are what I said about NHS Scotland as always having been a separate entity but with long standing agreements about cooperation with NHS England/Wales and N. Ireland I think. Agreed about hornets nests - so I'm being careful here too!

[shasmac]

I wonder if they might be looking for local guinea pigs, lol

[cathie]

Worth trying. I'm not quite so local, but I've put the idea into my GP's ear!

[Hidden]

A friend sent me this link yesterday afternoon but then I saw you had put it up already earlier today. What pleased me is that the woman who sent it to me works for the NHS in admin and that she'd read and digested it as this same woman used to say to me "how is that arthritis condition of yours - better?". Whereas now she seems to have taken the fact that it's a chronic autoimmune disease on board at last and is sending me links such as this. That has to be very positive - as will this project be hopefully.

[cathie in reply to Hidden]

Lets circulate anything that seems useful. I'm a bit hopeful about this Glasgow resource. Even if all it achieves is to make people sit up and realise that this is SERIOUS! Nothing like having a bit of expertise to achieve this.

[nomoreheels in reply to Hidden]

Result! It's gratifying isn't it Twitchy when a complete turnaround happens such as this & even nicer she's thinking of you sending links. Let's all hope too that the project does turn out to be the resource it promises.

[earthwitch]

It does sound interesting. I hope it really does end up being of practical use to patients quickly. Aberdeen is also a "Centre of Excellence" for EULAR (European League against Rheumatism - or something oldfashioned like that, but its an excellent organisation), but I'm not impressed with the depth of their research at the moment. They are doing bone density research, but patients here still have to wait over 12 months for a scan, and can only get one done every five years even if you are at risk, and they are part of an ankylosing spondylitis registry but the AS service is virtually non-existent as they are so short of rheumatologists. Aberdeen also has an upright Fonar MRI scanner which is a pretty amazing machine, but it seems they are only using that for research and not for general patient use.

I guess I'm generally not impressed with "centres of excellence", although I do know that Prof Iain MacInnes in Glasgow has a really excellent reputation - in the UK and worldwide, and that they have made some really good breakthroughs recently with understanding the inflammatory mechanism of RA.

[cathie]

I'm with you on the doubtful mix of clinical and research priorities. I read somewhere that the Glasgow people were focusing on matching patients with biologic treatments, as now it's so hit and miss.

[Hidden]

Wow,,well I will be moving to the outer Hebrides in the next year and Glasgow will be my base for my RA and OA. So that's promising. Thank you for sharing the link. Michellex

[cathie]

Outer Hebrides sounds good

[net2012]

I have heard too that a glasgow prof is working on being able to test which biologic would be most sutiable. Great news. I wasn't sure of which biologic to choose as I know they work on different cells. I chose Enbrel because of it staying in the system the shortest. Scardy cats first biologic lol.

[cathie in reply to net2012]

Im on enbrel too, week 6 I hope it's working well for you?

[Jora]

Thanks. Encouraging. .

[net2012]

I am off Enbrel Cathie afraid to say. I got the site reactions on injection 3 and carried on with some advice from HAH nurse. I think I posted about it saying using an anti histamine and alo vera gel and calomine lotion but they just got bigger. One went from my belly button to my hip and although I was feeling really well and looked well my consultant was so pleased until I showed him and he was horrified at the reaction. He wanted to take me off Enbrel there and then but I begged him to let me try for another 4 weeks as heard they could eventually go but they never did get any smaller and he said I was allergic I think to the preservative in it. So now awaiting to start Humira which does not have the preservative.

[net2012]

For such a great drug why can't they sort the preservative in it out as it was working so good