Improving the experiences of health services for people with arthritis A team of talented medical students are working on research projects that they anticipate will influence and improve health care for people with arthritis. The team is supervised by Professor Rebecca Grainger and Doctor Tehmina Gladman (PhD). The projects focus on two areas relevant to people with arthritis: • A mobile app to facilitate student learning in musculoskeletal and arthritis education while completing their medical degrees. • Gather ideas and perspectives for what public hospital rheumatology services should do and how these should be organised.
Dr Gladman hopes to gain funding to develop the app and evaluate its impact on student learning. Rheumatology services Focusing more directly on patient care, Rachel Ngan Kee has been supervised by Prof. Grainger to explore what people with arthritis and related conditions value about their current DHB rheumatology services and identify priorities for future services. Professor Nicola Dalbeth and Doctor Valerie Milne (PhD) are also on the research team for this project
There are no national guidelines about what public hospital rheumatology services should Mobile app do or how these should be Medical degrees have full curricula organised. Prof. Grainger led with learning required across work to gain consensus from Professor Rebecca Grainger and Rachel the life continuum in all disease rheumatologists in Aotearoa New Ngan Kee with Kee's poster, which was systems and healthcare settings. As awarded a Highly Commended prize in the Zealand about rheumatology of Otago Wellington Summer such, Musculoskeletal and arthritis University service provision components Student showcase on 27th January 2022. education may not get enough based on international bestin-depth learning necessary for practice guidelines. However, all students to gain all the skills and confidence to the patient perspective is critical if rheumatology assess and manage people with arthritis. services are to meet patient needs. Ngan Kee led a focus group of volunteers recruited by Arthritis New Dr Gladman and Prof. Grainger’s students, Ollie Zealand to canvas and explore their views about McCullough (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa) rheumatology services and the best practice services and Henry Li have spent a summer building the reviewed by rheumatologists. foundations of a future mobile app. This work is being prepared for publication and McCullough completed a systematic search of the will inform a future survey open to users of DHB mobile app stores to locate and rate mobile apps rheumatology services, undertaken in collaboration that support learning musculoskeletal clinical skills. with Arthritis New Zealand. He also developed guiding principles for creating a student-centred musculoskeletal examination Together these types of innovative projects should skills app based on the literature and student focus inform and improve future healthcare. Prof. Grainger group’s data analysis. and Dr Gladman have turned their research interest in using apps to support medical student education Li developed a wireframe model of a potential to improve student opportunities to develop skills musculoskeletal clinical skills mobile app in parallel in the assessment of arthritis. They are delighted with this work. He tested and refined the model to support future doctors in gaining research using feedback from student interviews. The experience in arthritis. students’ work informed each other’s projects, Rachel Ngan Kee and Ollie McCullough's improving both as they developed their research. work has been supported by research funding The medical students involved were excited and enthusiastic about improving their skills in this area. provided by Arthritis New Zealand. *Professor Rebecca Grainger is a rheumatologist working in the public hospital system in the Wellington region. *Doctor Tehmina Gladman is a senior lecturer and education advisor at the University of Otago Wellington. ARTHRITIS NEW ZEALAND MAGAZINE MAY 2022
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