By Dr Irwin Lim, Rheumatologist
This post was inspired by RA Guy. He recently wrote a piece about an Autoimmune Wellness Centre.
RA Guy makes many important observations, observations our group believe in strongly with our CONNECTED CARE vision:
"When you live with a chronic illness like rheumatoid arthritis, going to all of your different health care appointments can easily feel like a full time job. And to make the situation even more complicated, everything is usually in a different place."
"wouldn’t it be nice to do so in an environment that places more emphasis on the “care” part and less emphasis on the “medical” part?"
"A place where a complete support team has already been established, where patients can choose from the wide range of different services that are available."
RA Guy goes on to describe a 10-storey building designed for this purpose. It's a grand design and a lovely concept. I urge you to have a look at his piece on Autoimmune Wellness Centre.
I couldn't help but comment on his blog. This is what I wrote:
"I was really glad to see this piece as it's our group’s vision to create this. We’re on our way on a much more modest scale but the concept of CONNECTED CARE, co-located & multidisciplinary is alive.
We combine Rheumatologists, Physiotherapists, Exercise Physiologists, Dietitian, Massage therapy, Nurse Educator, Infusion Centre, some imaging, pathology collection, an exercise gym area with classes designed for patients with chronic illness. Present in a 2-storey house but we’d love the 10-storey building if there are rich benefactors out there!"
BJC HEALTH was conceived in 2002 as a multidisciplinary clinic targeting musculoskeletal disease. We recognized that the way forward in improving the treatment of acute and chronic musculoskeletal injury would involve a coordinated, comprehensive service that no one doctor or allied health professional could reasonably provide.
Do you agree that this type of integrated rheumatology centre is the way service should be delivered?
Dr Irwin Lim is a rheumatologist and a director of BJC Health. You should follow him on twitter here. Arthritis requires an integrated approach. We call this, Connected Care. Contact us.