Solution to chronic disease burden in the community: Osteoarthritis

Groups related to this event

Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science

Event date

Tuesday, 30 August 2016

Professor David Hunter, Florance and Cope Chair of Rheumatology and Professor of Medicine at University of Sydney, Chair of the Institute of Bone and Joint Research and Staff Specialist at Royal North Shore Hospital and North Sydney Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Centre. View the seminar video.

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is at the forefront of an exploding epidemic of non-communicable chronic diseases. It affects over 3 million Australians and is a leading cause of disability and health service utilisation. Beyond the pharmacological and surgical advances, there are population-based interventions that have proven effective for preventing the development of OA. These measures include lifestyle management, maintaining a healthy weight, remaining active, and avoiding joint injury.

For the person with osteoarthritis, management is typically inappropriate, which has enormous downstream activity consequences for health services and contributes to poor health outcomes. Modern health care systems are typically reactive and focused upon acute care whereas the management of OA is ideally efficient, coordinated and patient centred to support integration of evidence into practice. Inflation in the cost of health care is driving changes to health systems that will not only enhance the organizational costs of OA delivery but also health outcomes.

This presentation will focus on research and implementation activity targeting both disease prevention and evidence-based health service delivery.

Speaker profile

Professor Hunter is a rheumatology clinician researcher whose main research focus is clinical and translational research in osteoarthritis (OA). He is the Florance and Cope Chair of Rheumatology and Professor of Medicine at University of Sydney, Chair of the Institute of Bone and Joint Research and Staff Specialist at Royal North Shore Hospital and North Sydney Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Centre.

He is ranked as the leading expert in the world on osteoarthritis on expertscape.com and is the section editor for UpToDate osteoarthritis. He holds a medical degree and Master of Sports Medicine from the University of New South Wales. He completed a fellowship in Rheumatology at the Royal Australian College of Physicians and earned a Masters of Medical Science (Clinical Epidemiology) from the University of Newcastle and received his PhD from the University of Sydney in 2001. His research is focused on a number of key elements in OA including (but not limited to) the epidemiology of osteoarthritis, the application of imaging to better understand structure and function with application to both epidemiologic research and clinical trials, novel therapies in disease management and heath service system delivery of chronic disease management. He is an editor for leading international journals in his field, has authored books on osteoarthritis and has over 350 publications in peer reviewed journals.

Seminar details

Date: Tuesday 30th August 2016

Time: 12pm - 1pm

Venue: Seminar room, Level 1, 75 Talavera Road, Macquarie University

Chair: Professor Richard Day, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, University of New South Wales, Medicine, St Vincent's Hospital, Visiting Professor AIHI