New post to boost much-needed foot care in Scottish rheumatoid arthritis patients
Glasgow’s reputation as a leading UK centre for podiatry research in arthritis has received a major boost.
The appointment of Dr Debbie Turner as the new Arthritis Research Campaign senior lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University will also lead to much-needed improvements in podiatry care for patients with rheumatoid arthritis throughout Scotland.
Until recently podiatry, or foot care, in people with rheumatoid arthritis has been neglected, although painful feet is a major problem for many sufferers, and the academic study of podiatry is still fairly new. But the appointment of Professor Jim Woodburn as the first research podiatry chair in the UK in 2005 was the first step in establishing Glasgow as an internationally recognised centre for podiatry research.
The new five-year £355,000 lectureship, funded by leading medical research charity the Arthritis Research Campaign (arc), and based at the university’s School of Health and Social Care in conjunction with the Centre for Rheumatic Diseases and Professor Roger Sturrock’s team at the Glasgow University, will further stimulate studies which will have a knock-on effect of better treatment for patients.
“Podiatry is an important part of the treatment regime for people with rheumatoid arthritis,” explained Dr Turner, who has moved up to Glasgow from Huddersfield in West Yorkshire to take up the new post.
“But provision is patchy throughout hospitals in Scotland, from centres of excellence offering a full podiatry service to hospitals that make no provision at all. And in some GP practices you will find that while diabetes is recognised as a priority for podiatry, rheumatoid arthritis is not, despite the fact that many patients will have major problems and suffer extreme pain with their feet.”
