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Opportunity to work within an innovative new Healthcare and physical rehabilitation group practice

By Insights

Join our healthcare- and physical therapy team, we have call for:

  • Physiotherapists
  • Biokineticists
  • Dieticians
  • Podiatrists
  • Chiropodists
  • Wound care specialists
  • Chiropractors
  • Speech therapists
  • Occupational therapists
  • OTHER healthcare and wellness practitioners

 

Fulltime-, rotational- or occasional clinics

 

For more information contact

Cisca van der Lith  – vcisca@hotmail.com

Or

Thania van der Lith – Thaniavanderlith@gmail.com

Why delays to fixing health care are bad news for South Africans

By Insights

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Over 80% of South Africans rely on state facilities like Chris Hani Baragwanath, the third largest hospital in the world.

Author: Wezile Chitha, University of the Witwatersrand

The release of a final report about the state of competition in South Africa’s private health sector has been delayed again. It was compiled by an inquiry panel made up of medical, legal and economic experts. The panel heard submissions from a range of stakeholders including members of the public, civil society organisations as well as private hospital groups.

The inquiry was set up under the auspices of the country’s competition authority in 2013. It’s remit was to investigate characteristics of the private health sector that may prevent, distort or restrict competition. Its preliminary report, released in July 2018, concluded, among other things that the sector was highly concentrated in the hands of a few major players. The final leg of work was to get inputs from various players on the initial findings before concluding the inquiry. The inquiry has cost tax payers R197 million so far.

Another delay of the report – which should have been released in March 2019 –is therefore bad news. The sooner South African authorities deal with the issues of anti-competitive behaviour in the private sector, the more likely access to quality health care will improve.

South Africa has a two-tiered health care system. The public sector is under-resourced and stretched while the private sector is highly sophisticated and expensive. Even though only 16% of the country’s population uses private health care, it nevertheless gets a large portion of the government’s health expenditure in subsidies.

At the same time, private health costs continue to balloon and fewer people can afford it.




Read more:
Explainer: how competitive is South Africa’s private health care sector


The inquiry’s preliminary recommendations offered a clear agenda for how the private sector can become an integral part of the current national health system. There must be no more delays: if South Africa is to reach its lofty goal of universal health coverage, the report must be released and those recommendations adopted.

Key findings and recommendations

The inquiry examined three aspects of the private sector.

  • Medical schemes through which people pay for private health services and the administrators who run them.
  • Private facilities, such as hospitals and clinics.
  • Medical doctors and specialists in the private sector.

The key preliminary findings and recommendations were:

  • Medical schemes provide multiple plan options for cover without providing adequate information to understand what they cover, how the plans compare and what value the patients receive. As a result, consumers aren’t able to compare what schemes offer or choose plan options on the basis of value for money.
  • There is a lack of transparency on the pricing of health care goods and services, standardised reporting of health outcomes and implementation of evidence-based guidelines and treatment protocols.
  • Medical practitioners and specialists are concentrated in the private sector. As a consequence, there is time to over-service and inefficient use of expertise and time.

In light of these and other findings, the inquiry made a number of recommendations to remedy the situation.

These included putting measures in place to enable the Council for Medical Schemes, which regulates medical aids, to exercise more effective oversight.

In addition, to ensure that people who belong to medical aids get more comprehensive cover, the inquiry proposed that all medical schemes also offer a standalone standardised obligatory basic benefit option. The basic option would include a standard basket of goods and services and be comparable among schemes. This option would include cover for the prescribed minimum benefits, make provision for the treatment of these prescribed minimum benefits outside of hospital settings and add primary and preventive care.

And the inquiry recommended tighter regulation of the sector through the establishment of a dedicated health care regulatory authority. This would govern the number and distribution of doctors and hospitals to meet current and future needs. And it would ensure the development of clinical protocols as well as shape the structure of payment systems.

The inquiry also recommended that a centralised national licensing framework be introduced. This would accredit all health facilities including clinics, hospitals and GPs’ rooms. Another recommendation was to establish a price-setting mechanism.

Important

The recommendations are innovative and would go a long way toward making health care in the country more equitable. But South Africans will have to keep waiting to see if they actually bear fruit.

The latest development is that, due to a lack of funds, all the inquiry’s work has been suspended until the end of the financial year in March after which a new date for the release of the final report will be published in the Government Gazette.

It’s important that the inquiry is allowed to complete its task sooner rather than later. This is because its findings could have a bearing on a piece of legislation currently making its way through parliament – the Medical Schemes Amendment Bill. The bill proposes changes to medical scheme governance and benefit options. Reports suggested that the department of health wanted to wait for the outcome of the inquiry before finalising the bill.

The inquiry could also affect the National Health Insurance Bill which is meant to herald in universal health care. But the bill is mired in controversy. The most recent version was recently rejected by the country’s cabinet which instructed the national department of health department to review what’s been proposed.

Until the final report is released, South Africans must contend with a fragmented, poorly regulated and expensive health care delivery system.The Conversation

Wezile Chitha, Assistant Dean: Strategic Affairs, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Physiotherapy works better when you believe it will help you – new study

By Insights
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Master1305/Shutterstock

Rachel Chester, University of East Anglia

People with shoulder pain who expect physiotherapy to help them are likely to have a better recovery than those who expect only minimal or no improvement, according to our latest study. We also found that people are likely to have a better recovery if they are confident they will be able to continue doing things that are important to them, such as socialising, hobbies and work.

Shoulder pain affects people of all ages and can become persistent. Injury and overuse are common causes of shoulder pain, but sometimes the cause is unclear. It can disturb sleep, interfere with work, leisure and everyday activities like washing and dressing. Exercise, prescribed by physiotherapists, is an effective treatment for shoulder pain, but not everyone benefits from physiotherapy.

Researchers from the University of East Anglia and the University of Hertfordshire in the south-east of England, together with local physiotherapists, wanted to find out more about the characteristics of people who benefit from physiotherapy compared with those who continue to experience persistent pain and disability.

Knowing the outcome is important for people with shoulder pain as it helps them decide whether or not to pursue a course of physiotherapy.

Our study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, included 1,030 people attending physiotherapy for musculoskeletal shoulder pain in 11 NHS trusts across the east of England. We collected information on 71 patient characteristics, such as age, lifestyle and medical history, and clinical examination findings before and during the patients’ first physiotherapy appointment.

A total of 811 people provided information on their shoulder pain and function six months later.

Not everyone benefits from exercise to ease shoulder pain.
Vershinin89/Shutterstock

Surprise finding

What surprised us was that patients who had said they expected to “completely recover” as a result of physiotherapy did even better than patients who expected to “much improve”.

The most important predictor of outcome was the person’s pain and disability at the first appointment. Higher levels of pain and disability were associated with higher levels six months later. And lower baseline levels were associated lower levels six months later. But this relationship often changed for people who had high “pain self-efficacy”, that is, confidence in the ability to carry on doing most things, despite having shoulder pain.

Another surprise finding was that people with high baseline pain and disability, but with high levels of pain self-efficacy did as well as, and sometimes better than, people with low baseline pain and disability and low pain self-efficacy.

First study of its kind

This is the first study to investigate patient expectations of the outcome of physiotherapy for shoulder pain. Earlier research shows that high patient expectation of recovery predicts a better outcome following physiotherapy for back pain and neck pain, and a better outcome following orthopaedic surgery.

On a similar note, this is the first study to show that higher pain self-efficacy predicts a better outcome in non-surgically managed shoulder pain. Previous research has shown that self-efficacy predicts a better outcome for a range of other health conditions. Also, people with higher self-efficacy are more likely to do the home-exercise programme suggested by their physiotherapist.

If you have shoulder pain, there are several ways to increase your pain self-efficacy. Work with your physiotherapist to understand and manage your symptoms. Practice your exercises together and ask your physiotherapist for feedback, including how to adjust your exercises to make them harder or easier. Finally, make sure you discuss what you want with your physiotherapy and the activities that are important to you.The Conversation

Rachel Chester, Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of East Anglia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Clinical Athlete: Physique Athletes – Injury Risk & Psychological Factors with Eric Helms

By Insights

Competition prep for physique athletes is hard. Why do injury rates seem to be higher during this time? What are the optimal training and nutritional strategies when preparing for a show?

Are all types of cardio created equal? Is cardio necessary at all for a show-prep cut? We welcome internationally recognized coach, competitor, and researcher Eric Helms, PhD onto the show to discuss these topics and more.

About Eric Helms:
Eric has published multiple peer reviewed articles in exercise science and nutrition journals and writes for commercial fitness publications. He’s taught undergraduate and graduate level nutrition and exercise science and speaks internationally at academic and commercial conferences for fitness, nutrition and strength and conditioning. He has a BS in fitness and wellness, an MS in exercise science, a second masters in sports nutrition, a PhD in strength and conditioning, and is a research fellow for AUT at the Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand.

Tennis Basics: Improve Hip and Lower Body Range of Motion

By Insights

Sports like tennis, squash and badminton require a high level of mobility and flexibility in the lower limbs including your knees and hip. For players looking to improve their game, it is important to focus on developing Range of Motion (ROM) in these joints.

In this video, the team from Celota take players through simple exercises to improve ROM to elevate their game:

Don’t forget that you can use our 3D Joint ROM tool to measure your Range of Motion (ROM) in real-time.

Prediction Lab healthcare partnership launched

By Insights

Dynamic Body Technology, The Movement Data Company ™ – the team behind the 3D Joint ROM tool – have signed an exclusive global licensing deal for the delivery of a predictive analysis tool for physiotherapists and sports science professionals.

The South African based medical technology firm has partnered with the Biodynamics Institute whose analysis has been back-tested with over 6000 patients with an 84% success rate. The analysis will be delivered as a subscription offering under the “Dynamic Body Technology Prediction Lab” brand.

“For us, this is the logical step in the evolution of our business,” says Dynamic Body Technology CEO Marc Ashton adding: “Ultimately we want to develop tools that use objective data to analyse healthcare conditions and inform treatment methods.”

Carlo Longano, CEO of Biodynamics Institute says: “We have invested a significant amount of time into developing these techniques and we look forward to sharing them with the market and developing higher quality therapists.”

Not only does the partnership add a new offering to Dynamic Body Technology but it also adds value new skills to the development team says Stephen Meyerowitz, Chief Technical Officer and co-founder of Dynamic Body Technology: “For me, one of the real benefits of this particularly opportunity is that it helps us expand our clinical skills base by bringing in experts in the fields of gait analysis, podiatry and biomechanics. This will assist us in continuing to develop more relevant tools for healthcare professionals.”

Partners Wanted: Cricket and Athletics research

By Insights

We have been asked to partner with one of the local universities for the ongoing development of technology related to the movement of sports professionals in the fields of cricket and athletics (hurdles).

The project will be using our technology to analyse the movement of athletes in these fields using our Bluetooth sensor technology and there is partial grant funding which has been allocated.

We are looking for partners who would be interested in sponsoring some of this research.

Sponsorship benefits will include associated media exposure, engagements with university students and healthcare professionals, launch event and other activation points.

If you are keen to look at this project, please contact our CEO Marc Ashton – marca@3djointrom.com

Upcoming physiotherapy workshops – South Africa

By Insights

Our 3D Joint ROM tool will be on display at the following workshops presented by our partners at Clinical Solutions over the next few months.

Masterclass Clinical Workshops

  • The Exercise and Function without Pain
  • Treating spinal joint disorders 
  • The Multimodal Clinical Concept

Presented by: Arie Michaeli MSc PT, MCMT – Clinical Physiotherapist

Cape Town – Sat 9, Tue 12 & Sat 16 February, 30 Ceus, R1 800

Johannesburg – Sat 16, Sat 30 March & Mon 14 April, 30 Ceus, R1 800 

Durban  – Sat 17, Wed 21 & Sat 24 August, 30 Ceus, R1 800

What will you learn?

  • Clinical assessment of spinal joint disorders (lumbar, cervical and thoracic).
  • Relevant clinical anatomy.
  • Simple techniques to treat acute and chronic vertebral joint disorders.
  • Reconciling biomechanics with pain science.
  • Multimodal treatment approach for vertebral joint disorders.
  • Exercise therapy for acute and chronic vertebral joint disorders.

Includes live patient demonstrations.

FOR FURTHER DETAILS CALL
Melanie ⅼ 076 693 7777 ⅼ melanie@clinisol.co.za