Welcome to Your Osteopath Newsletter
Every two months we will bring you the latest news from the osteopathic profession as well as up-to-date advice on health topics relating to osteopathy. It won't be too technical; it will be straightforward, informative and - we trust - useful. If you have questions about any of the treatments mentioned below, then just contact us (see our details on the right). We hope you enjoy it.
Top Story
Not clear about the full range of health conditions that an osteopath can treat? Well, some useful, objective guidance is now available following the publication of a review of the evidence for the claims made for manual therapies, including osteopathy.
Osteopaths, like any other profession or organisation, can't make claims that are untrue in their advertising or marketing - otherwise they will breach the codes of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) (as set out in the British Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing).
The General Osteopathic Council (GCoS) reports in its latest Osteopath magazine that the General Chiropractic Council commissioned a report to review the evidence-base for a wide range of conditions frequently mentioned by osteopaths and other manual therapists. The review, The Effectiveness of manual therapies: the UK evidence report, by Gert Bronfort and others, includes evidence summary tablesand is available on the GOsC public website and its online ‘o zone'.
Online advice
You get a lot of free healthcare advice on the internet. Some of it comes from private health companies and insurance firms - companies that may well have your best interests at heart, but who also have a financial stake in your healthcare decisions. That's what makes the website run by NHS Direct - a public body - so fantastic: high quality healthcare advice on tap, 24 hours a day, and no questions about its motives.
The organisation's latest initiative is a pilot scheme for three Online Patient Decision Aids (OPDA) designed for patients who are facing difficult decisions about medical tests or treatments, and who don't know which will be best for them.
The first phase of the pilot is an OPDA for patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, along with two other already developed Decision Aids for patients with an enlarged prostate or localised prostate cancer. All three will be trialled in the NHS across eight pilot sites over eight weeks from the beginning of June 2010.
Using the aids, patients can review all the information, including the pros and cons of the treatment options available, and can view filmed interviews with people who live with the conditions, before completing a short questionnaire to assess their treatment preferences. The questionnaire can then be used to support
joint decision making between the patient and their clinician.
If the pilots are successful a further six OPDAs will be placed online.
NHS Direct says that the long term aim is to develop a national multi-media NHS ‘wrap' for OPDAs using the organisation's existing online health and symptom checker systems.
Of course, if you prefer speaking to a human being, remember that your osteopath is always on hand to provide some expert advice.
