19 March 2025
BSR’s first foot health guideline is now available and provides evidence-based guidance on the management and care of foot health in inflammatory arthritis (IA) for adults, children and young people.
As a whole life-course guideline, it provides recommendations to improve the quality and consistency of care across the MDT for all ages.
Gavin Cleary, paediatric rheumatologist at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, said:
“I was very reassured from the outset that the voice of children and young people was heard during the development of this guideline. The multi-disciplinary approach to the management and care of this age group was a key consideration throughout, and the relevance of this guideline to children and young people is very clear.”
The guideline was developed by members from rheumatology as well as a wider working group made up of experts by experience, podiatrists, physiotherapists, orthotists, general practitioners, orthopaedic surgeons, and specialist rheumatology nurses.
Expert by experience, Alan Rawlings, reflects on his experience in the guideline working group:
“It was awe-inspiring from a patient's perspective, to know the degree of detail that had gone into this…wherever one has the consultation, wherever one has treatment, one knows that with the guidelines in the background, then the best of all possible treatment can be given. By experience these people have put together something that we, as patients, can only benefit from.”
The guideline also marks the first BSR guideline to be published that has been developed in a collaboration with the School of Medicine at Keele University, who are supporting the evidence reviews of several BSR guidelines.
Endorsed by Royal College of Podiatry, the guideline also has a lay summary which can be read on our website.
Join GWG members, Alan Rawlings, Lara Chapman, Edward Roddy, and Gavin Cleary, for a discussion about the why this guideline is so important and an overview of some of the key recommendations, hosted by Ernest Choy, in the latest episode of the Rheumatology roundtable below.
An audit tool has also been developed to assist the implementation of the guideline.
All BSR guidelines are published in Rheumatology under an ‘open access’ licence and available for free on the British Society for Rheumatology website.