4min chapter

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What joints does osteoarthritis commonly affect? with Dr Qiang Liu

Joint Action

CHAPTER

The Importance of Primary Care for Osteo-Thratus

There are a lot of important messages there and I guess briefly distill some of them. One thing that you did highlight there is an area where China is leading potentially unfortunately. The lack of a good system for primary care is, I think, it's the one thing that we have to address. And in this, we need the TPs to be trained and educated in medical schools.

00:00
Speaker 2
There are a lot of important messages there and I guess briefly distill some of them. One of the important elements about the study is highlighting the number of people who are affected by osteo-thratus. Both in terms of the absolute number of people that have the disease, but also in terms of the impact that that has for the individuals affected and the healthcare system that is responsible for their care. So that number is continuing to increase and unless we do something, either about prevention and that could be either primary or secondary prevention, that number will become overwhelming. And I think critical, new to some of what you're saying there is it's really, really important to have a good functioning primary care so that that way people can access those interventions that you spoke about, whether that be, you know, exercise, education, weight reduction, and they don't necessarily need to go off and see the surgeon and potentially have care that they otherwise are not needing. One thing that you did highlight there is an area where China is leading potentially unfortunately. So, you know, obviously we mentioned before that, you know, 527 million people around the world have osteo-thratus and the leader on that board there is China, with 133 million of those people. Next, followed by India with 62 million and US with 52 million. So, there's some countries there that, you know, have a staggering number of people that are affected, but also I guess hopefully your study helps to highlight opportunities for doing things differently to the way we're currently managing the disease. Now, Lou, is there anything further that you wanted to say about the study in terms of highlighting messages before we get on to some other questions?
Speaker 1
Yeah, as you mentioned, the burden of osteo-thratus is very with the geographic regions and the two leading countries, China and India are still developing countries. So, I think managing this huge burden of osteo-thratus is not only a matter of healthcare, it's also a matter of policymaking, health insurance, you know, a whole system, including the primary care system. But I would mention also that extending from the research findings and looking at this from the perspective of my country is that we need a better medical health care provider's education. From the moment most patients with osteo-thratus are visiting orthopedic surgeons, orthopedics is a specialty for surgery, but we have to see these huge number of patients. So, I think it's better before they see us, they can have their GPs, either in community health care service or big hospitals. I think most of them will get good results. But then when they have to have the surgery or they want to evaluate their indication for surgery, they came to us. The lack of a good system for primary care is, I think, it's the one thing that we have to address. And in this, we need the TPs to be trained and educated in medical schools. My medical school, Peking University is a leading one in China, and we don't have a department or residency program for TPs for physicians who are delivering primary care. No, we don't have this one. So, this is one problem. I would say here.

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