Fundraising initiatives 2018

Birdshotters and their partners are definitely trying to get more active in 2018.  In the process they are also hoping to raise valuable funds to help pay for some much-needed birdshot research.

We are particularly impressed that Louisa, a recently diagnosed birdshotter from the York area, has decided to take on a massive cycling challenge:  two thousand and eighteen miles in the year 2018.  She is doing this to help celebrate reaching her 50th milestone birthday.  Road cycling is a sport she has only recently taken up, proving that it is never too late to start.

Diagnosed last year, Louisa has also taken to cycling the 30-odd miles  from her home  to her eye appointments at York Hospital.

Louisa cycling

Louisa’s fundraising has already got off to a really good start, but she would be delighted if you should like to help her towards achieving her target.

Here Louisa tells her story to help her fundraising:

London Marathon 2018

Roger Brown is running the London Marathon in April 2018, helping to raise awareness about birdshot uveitis. He is also raising much needed funds for research into birdshot. He fully appreciates the impact that this rare eye condition can have on an individual, as his wife Caroline has been living with birdshot for the last six years. He knows just how tough it has been for her, and for the team treating her, to find effective treatment. Research is desperately needed to find better options to treat birdshot. Birdshot Uveitis Society is delighted that Roger is running in the London Marathon this year. Places in the London Marathon are like gold dust.  To get a place, you have to promise to do substantial fundraising.  For a small charity like the Birdshot Uveitis Society, its tough getting marathon places, so we are delighted to be teaming up with Fight for Sight to do this.

You can click on this link to read Roger’s story in detail.  He’d love it it if you chose to support his marathon run as he needs to raise £2500 to keep to his side of the deal with Fight for Sight.

Victory for Roger – the elation of completing the challenge

Moorfields Eye charity  Eye to Eye walk 4th March 2018

Team Birdshot is also taking part in the Moorfields Eye to Eye 14 mile walk on the 4th March 2018.  If you want to take part in this walking challenge, further details can be found here, and there is also a JustGiving link where you can donate.

 

Sight village exhibition 7th and 8th November 2017

SIGHT VILLAGE LONDON is on from 7th-8th November 2017 at the Kensington Town Hall, Hornton Street, W8 from 9.30-5.30 on 7th and 9.30 – 3.30 on the 8th. It’s a chance to look at an exhibition for blind and partially sighted people and those experiencing age related sight problems. It’s a good opportunity to see the UK’s leading providers of products under one roof.  Details of the exhibition can be found on the below pdf file

Sight village information leaflet

 

All Party Parliamentary Group Inquiry survey looking to capture patients’ experience of eye care services in England

BUS received the below request from the RNIB and hope that people in the England might like to take the survey linked to below to help inform our government about eye care services in England:

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Eye Health and Visual Impairment is running an Inquiry during 2017 into the issue of capacity problems in NHS eye care services in England.

The APPG on Eye Health and Visual Impairment is made up of both members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords from all political parties.

The APPG Inquiry needs to hear from patients who have received treatment within the last three years (not including the routine provision of glasses or contact lenses) about their experiences of eye care services in England (both positive and negative experiences). The APPG would welcome responses from families and carers too.

Have your say and complete the patient survey https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/APPG-Inquiry

If you would prefer to take part in this survey over the phone please contact the campaigns hotline on 020 7391 2123 to leave your name and contact number with one of team for a call back.

The survey is voluntary and will take about 15 minutes, is completely anonymous, and will help Parliamentarians make recommendations to improve the commissioning and planning of eye care services in England. We will also use the findings to support the future work of RNIB in improving care for people with eye conditions.

The survey will close on 20th October 2017.

For more information about the APPG inquiry visit https://www.rnib.org.uk/appginquiry/how-to-give-evidence

‘Patient voice in ophthalmology research’ meeting, July 2017

Birmingham “Patient Voice workshop” 12th July 2017

Until recently, it was unusual for doctors, researchers and patients to meet. Patients were excluded from medical conferences, other than being occasionally invited to attend as teaching subjects. Thankfully, this is changing. A meeting held at the Centre for Professional Development in the University of Birmingham Medical School (UK) on July 12th 2017 brought together patients and professionals on equal terms to exchange information and views on some of the ways patients and patient groups such as BUS are influencing ophthalmology research. Speakers included our director Annie Folkard and our research nurse Sue Southworth.  The workshop was masterminded by Birmingham’s Professor Alastair Denniston.

Annie Folkard opened the workshop by describing her journey as a patient, the pathway which led to the formation of the Birdshot Uveitis Society, and the progress that has been made to date. “The Birdshot Uveitis Society is like a huge communication hub, connecting not only patients, but clinicians and researchers as well…It’s very much a partnership between clinicians, scientists, researchers, charities and people with birdshot. We all play a part in this journey together.”

Sue Southworth, senior birdshot research nurse at Birmingham, sponsored by BUS, added: “Working with patient groups puts any clinician in a privileged position. Patients’ knowledge about their experience is valuable, important and a necessary component of discussions about eye research. Clinicians don’t learn solely from textbooks and lectures. The experience they have, throughout training and beyond, informs their practice. Patients’ experience of their condition is no less valuable. Clinicians are realising this. It is important to remember that the impetus for this first ‘patient voice’ day came from a clinician: things are changing.”

A speaker from another group reminded everybody that patients are not a separate species. They are fighters, often having to fight to be believed. However, discovering and then researching what patients actually experience from their conditions and treatments is not as easy as it sounds. There is often a mismatch between what patients and clinicians each feel is important in research. ‘Patient reported outcome measures’ (PROMS) constructed without patient input are an example of this inequality. One clinician speaker had worked with patients to develop ‘patient-generated outcome and experience measures’ (POEMS) to use in his research, to capture what mattered most to patients. Also, writing good patient information is notoriously hard to do, and this is another area where patient input can help improve matters.

Professor Peter Shah in action

Delegates heard some interesting examples of how patients had influenced research. These included the development of a patient-held ‘glaucoma passport’ to hold their essential information; an electronic way for patients to record health events between clinic visits, and the development of an ‘artificial intelligence’ application which will eventually interpret optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans, enabling new patients in the community to have quicker access to treatment.

Pearse Keane talking about the importance of communicating and the use of artificial intelligence in interpreting scans

Good communication, with the patient centrally placed, received repeated emphasis during the day. Basic principles included the clinician adjusting their approach to each patient by getting to know them; judging their feelings and reacting appropriately; being authentic and sincere, and the importance of what is said and how it is said.

During the day, sets of some quite pointed questions were presented to delegates for them to vote on electronically. One question was whether or not the current UK requirement of having to include details of patient involvement on research grant application forms was just a trendy ‘buzz word’ requirement to obtain research funding, or whether it was a genuine move to get patients involved right from the beginning of planning research, to incorporate their views as part of the research design and ensure the project would be truly relevant to patients.

The day provided a great opportunity to meet and learn from other patient groups and those with whom they work. Groups can often feel isolated in promoting the patient voice to doctors and researchers on what really matters to patients, and in trying to get that input transformed into useful research. BUS’s presence and contributions to the meeting showed we are recognised as an important part of the ophthalmology patient group movement.

Professor Alastair Denniston, meeting co-chair, said: “BUS is a brilliant example of how patients can work together to change the status quo – and bring a new culture of research to improve patient care. At a personal level, I know that my own priorities have changed as I have learnt to listen to ‘the patient voice’ – hearing what matters to people who actually live with the condition. The ‘Patient Voice Day’ was an exciting opportunity to share our experiences in the ophthalmic community and to learn from each other across a range of conditions and backgrounds.”

For more information, follow the link to: The patient is speaking, an in-depth article published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology in March 2017.

Margaret Gilmour discussing the posters over coffee with one of the delegates

Left to right: speakers, Derek Kyte, Professor Mel Calvert from CPROR and Professor Graham Lee from Brisbane

Tessa Richards, BMJ Senior Editor Patient Partnership (left) with Geraldine Hoad from Macular Society and Tasanee Braithewaite from Moorfields Eye Hospital

During the coffee break

Photo credits: Xiaoxuan Liu

Margaret Gilmour

July 16th 2017

NICE – Uveitis (non-infectious) – adalimumab and dexamethasone [ID763]

It has been a long time coming but at last you can now  access all the committee papers, presentations and the draft NICE guidance for adalimuab injection (Humira®) and dexamethasone implant (Ozurdex®) as all the documents are now available on the NICE website: https://www.nice.org.uk/…/indevelopme…/gid-ta10007/documents

This multiple technology appraisal is a long drawn process and  BUS has been involved in this from the start in June 2015.   Since then we submitted an organisation statement and provided a patient expert to give the patient’s perspective on Humira.    We, along with RNIB and Olivia’s Vision have provided the patient perspective as we feel it is very important that these totally different technologies are available for people with sight threatening posterior uveitis.

There are many pages involved in the committee papers, but below we provide an index to help you find your way around.

As an organisation we will be providing our comments about draft guidance to try and get it improved and as members of the public you are also free to submit comments via the website.  The committee will meet on the 12th April to consider the proposal and the guidance will then be published in July 2017

We have often felt swamped by all the NICE paperwork. Under the webpage heading ‘Appraisal Consultation’ you will see links to the ‘appraisal consultation document’ and to the committee papers.

There are 684 pages of committee papers, but below we provide an index to help you find your way around. The appraisal consultation document contains the draft recommendations for the use of Humira and Ozurdex and this is fortunately considerably shorter. As an organisation, we will be providing our comments about the draft recommendations to try to get them improved. As members of the public, you are also free to submit your comments on the appraisal consultation document via the website.

The NICE appraisal committee will meet again on the 12th April to consider all the comments received on the appraisal consultation document. The NICE guidance will then be published in July 2017 as a ‘final appraisal determination’.

NICE committee papers, March 2017: page index to the 684 pages

 p3: ‘pre-meeting briefing’ done for committee members before February 15th 2017 meeting (includes useful notes linked to the assessment report, eg, p9: a treatment pathway provided by the clinical advisors).

  • p65:’matrix of consultees and commentators’ (issued February 2016).
  • p61: ‘final scope’ (issued June 2016).
  • p69: ‘Assessment Group Report’ (the economic modelling done by Sheffield; issued 30th November 2016).
  • p298: AbbVie’s response to the assessment group report.
  • p318: Allergan’s response to the assessment group report.
  • p326: BUS’s response to the assessment group report.
  • p328: Olivia’s Vision’s response to the assessment group report.
  • p330: RNIB’s response to the assessment group report.
  • p350: Assessment Group response to RNIB comments.
  • p351: Assessment Group response to Olivia’s Vision comments.
  • p352: Assessment Group response to BUS comments.
  • p357: Errata to the Assessment Group Report (all highlighted in red).
  • p431: AbbVie’s submission to NICE (August 19th 2016).
  • p489: Allergan’s submission to NICE (August 19th 2016).
  • p598: BUS’s submission to NICE (summer 2016).
  • p610: Olivia’s Vision’s submission to NICE (summer 2016).
  • p624: RNIB’s submission to NICE (summer 2016).
  • p640: NHS England’s submission to NICE (includes references to sirolimus).
  • p648: Prof Phil Murray’s submission to NICE.
  • p656: Sri Sharma’s submission to NICE.
  • p663: Ali Mapstone’s patient expert statement to NICE.
  • p671: Maxine McCarthy’s patient expert statement to NICE.
  • p681: Nicola Symes’s NHS England statement to NICE.

 

 

 

Working with patients for a brighter future

What sort of impact can patients and staff collectively make on eye clinics, in supporting eye research and in education at Moorfields Eye Hospital and at other eye hospitals across the country? What sort of hospital do we want the new Moorfields to be?

I joined a range of patients, charities, and staff at a Saturday morning workshop on December 12th 2016, brain-storming how we (patients and staff) can collectively improve services at the hospital to make them more patient-centred.

There were six five-minute talks which were filmed, and then a lot of discussion around the ideas that had been raised.

I was there representing BUS, to tell our story, summarized in the illustration below. If you click on the photograph, you will see the drawing in greater detail. It really captures the essence of the workshop. Rather amusingly, you can see me standing on top of the world, under the banner “Forming partnerships” saying “I no longer feel alone.” The drawing, done during the workshop discussions as we spoke, is by a talented artist, Sandra Howgate.

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 working-with-patients-towards-a-brighter-future

The team that ran the workshop New citizenship project will be presenting a report to the hospital.

Moorfields is part of the new NHS England Vanguard hospitals collaboration. You can find out more about the Vanguard movement on the Moorfields’ website http://www.moorfields.nhs.uk/news/moorfields-vanguard-new-nhs-hospitals-collaboration-drive

Sight Village 1st – 2nd November 2016, in London

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For those in the London UK area: Sight Village returns to London this November.  This is the publicity blurb that we recieved recently which you can down load and print off.

The popular two day event takes place at Kensington Town Hall on 1st and 2nd November. Doors open at 10am until 3pm and entry is free!

Sight Village is the UK’s leading exhibition for blind and partially sighted people and for those experiencing age related sight problems. It brings together leading providers of products and services all under one roof.

We recommend that all visitors pre-register to attend the event by following the link below. If you are unable to do this, please call a member of the team on 0121 428 5041 and we will be happy to complete this for you.

Please pass on the information about the event to service users and anyone who may benefit from visiting the event.

Interactions – a new BUS Q & A page

We are frequently asked about possible medicines interactions, particularly between prescribed immunosuppressants and complementary medicines such as dietary supplements or herbal remedies. The truth is that there is often no easy answer to many medicines interactions questions.

So, we decided to develop a new Q & A page to help you understand the subject of medicines interactions. We hope you will it find helpful, thought-provoking and enlightening.

The Q & As explain some of the complexities of medicines interactions. We hope that they will guide you in your searches and checking processes for the interactions information you need before you consider buying other medicines or supplements to add to the medication you are already taking.
Follow this link to browse the Q and A’s.

The Q & A content was created by one of our members. It has been reviewed by healthcare professionals and by members of the BUS standing advisory committee.

BUS would like to thank all those involved in preparing and checking this information.

April 2015

Have you struggled to get Humira treatment?

We recently heard from Genetic Alliance who are keen to learn about people who have struggled to get humira to treat their uveitis.  Here is an extract from their recent email to us:-

Genetic Alliance UK has been looking at access to medicine for rare disease patients. NHS England has provided us with a list of medicines requested through IFRs over the past year. One of these, Adalimumab (Humira), I believe could have been for patients with Uveitis.

I was wondering whether you have any information or case studies of your members struggling to access this medicine, and whether you would be willing to share it with us?

We are planning to do some policy work around this issue, so would be grateful for any assistance you can provide.

If you live in the UK and are able to help with this please do get in touch with BUS at info@birdshot.org.uk.

Many thanks

Specialist commissioning process update

Birdshot Uveitis Society members based in England may be aware we have been awaiting the results of the Specialist Commissioning process which has been going on over the last year. This is the process whereby government will decide which drugs are available for different rare conditions depending on the evidence that is available which shows that the drugs are effective.

We had been led to believe that the outcomes would be announced in December.  The recent news is that the decision making process had been delayed as a result of the threat of legal action by a patient group, (nothing to do with eyes or ophthalmology, but some other rare condition), who felt that the process was unfair.

In the meantime we’d be interested to hear from any patients with Birdshot Uveitis in the UK who have been turned down for treatment with either Humira or Infliximab and whose consultants are struggling to control the inflammation in their eyes with the more usual treatments. It would be interesting to get some idea about the numbers involved and to see what can be done to help.

Please do get in touch with BUS info@birdshot.org.uk and let us know if you have been experiencing this difficulty.