The urgent need to move upstream in caring for people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases

Bouraoui, Aicha; Rutter, Megan; Williamson, Luke; Fisher, Corinne; Sofat, Reecha; Sen, Debajit

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 has exposed the significant influence of social deprivation and racial disparity on health outcomes and the urgent need to move upstream for equitable, people-centred care.

The upstream–downstream public health parable describes downstream villagers living by the side of a river, who come to the rescue of those who fall into the water upstream (Fig. 1). The older villagers recall how difficult this was initially, with scarce resources available to them. Over the years, as the downstream heroes rescued more and more people, they invested in the system. They trained teams of swimmers, bought lifeboats and even built a hospital by the side of the river. In fact, they were so busy that they did not have the time to go upstream and understand why people were falling into the river in the first place [1].

Citation

Bouraoui, A., Rutter, M., Williamson, L., Fisher, C., Sofat, R., & Sen, D. (2022). The urgent need to move upstream in caring for people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases. Rheumatology Advances in Practice, 6(3), Article rkac092. https://doi.org/10.1093/rap/rkac092

• Journal Article Type: Editorial
• Acceptance Date: Jul 1, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Nov 7, 2022
• Publication Date: Nov 21, 2022
• Deposit Date: Sep 27, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 7, 2022
• Journal: Rheumatology Advances in Practice
• Electronic ISSN: 2514-1775
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 3
• Article Number: rkac092
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/rap/rkac092
• Keywords: Rheumatology
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/11747048
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/rheumap/article/6/3/rkac092/6808649