| BGS
Newsletter Online |
| BGS Falls and Bone Health Section from strength to strength |
| Email your comments The Falls and Bone Health section was founded in 2001. A handful of interested practitioners and researchers were there, myself included. Prof Marion McMurdo was elected as the first chair that day and served for 3 years before Finbarr Martin took over – handing the role over to Opinder Sahota and myself (as joint chairs) in 2008. We are now the biggest section of the society with close to 300 members and our annual conference on falls and postural instability attracts very multidisciplinary audiences of 500 or so (close to the attendance for the main BGS conferences) and a number of high quality scientific submissions and state of the art lectures. At the outset we offered life membership of the Section for £20, and at the time of writing this has yet to change. During the lifetime of the section, the highest number of submissions to Age and Ageing have been in the falls and bone health category and many of our members have been active in the research presented, or in peer review and commentary. During its existence, the section or its members have also contributed to major national audits of falls and bone health, (e.g. RCP audits, hip fracture database and Scottish hip fracture audit) evidence-based guidelines, (e.g. NICE consultations, Orthopaedic “blue book” on hip fracture management, AGS/BGS guidelines) government consultations, and alliances with other societies such as the American Geriatrics Society, Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons or Age Anaesthaesia Association, Help the Aged and National Osteoporosis Society. We have also been behind the BGS good practice guides on falls and osteoporosis, as well as campaigns like the (so far unsuccessful) initiative to have falls and bone health included in the Quality and Outcomes Framework for the GP contract, although some components have been included in the DES (Direct Enhanced Services) framework for PCTs. In addition to our main annual conference we have also put on a number of specialist sessions at the main BGS conference and have contributed to numerous other educational events such as the recent RSM/Swedish Society of Medicine Berzelius Symposium on falls. Perhaps most importantly, we have provided a forum for the sharing of ideas, information and good practice examples and a resource to answer the questions and concerns of our members and we have provided a clear example to the wider BGS in terms of our interdisciplinarity. For instance, 60% of the delegates and many of our speakers and scientific contributors at our annual conference are non-doctors – reflecting the range of professionals who deliver falls and bone health services. These events are considerably cheaper than those organised by rival “for-profit” companies and the anonymous feedback is uniformly excellent. We plan to continue this range of activities. For the future, we want to ensure our current membership list is up-to-date, we want to recruit new members with relevant clinical backgrounds and we intend to be more active in updating the current website and regular e-newsletter as well as an online forum and message board as a resource for members. We also hope to link these developments to the continuing existence of PROFANE (Prevention of Falls Network Europe). If any readers are interested in joining, please contact the membership secretary, Dr Jane Youde at Derby Foundation Hospital through the editor's email link above. David Oliver BGS Newsletter, March 2009 |