Innovation in treatment for people with rarer or less well-recognised long-term conditions (28 January 2021)

Summary

This paper, commissioned by UCB, investigates how five leading specialist hospital services in the UK are innovating in care for people with severe psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), axial spondyloarthritis, osteoporosis and combinations of inflammatory conditions.

The paper is based on interviews with a range of staff at the sites: the psoriasis clinic at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust; the IBD service at Western General Hospital in Edinburgh; the axial spondyloarthritis service at the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases; the osteoporosis service at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; and the specialist spondyloarthritis service at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. It describes how these services are innovating to improve care for the people who access them and deliver more holistic care that addresses individuals’ biomedical, psychological and social needs.

The paper draws out possible learning for other services working with people with long-term conditions.