Moving Medicine Wins RCP Patient Care Award
Innovative online physical activity tool wins prestigious Patient Care Award
Moving Medicine, an innovative online tool designed for healthcare professionals to promote and support their patients to get more active, has been awarded the patient-centred care award at the Royal College of Physicians’ Excellence in Patient Care Awards 2020.
Moving Medicine is a free online tool developed by the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine UK, in partnership with Public Health England and Sport England. It enables healthcare professionals to have evidence-based conversations with their patients across key common long-term conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, musculoskeletal pain and depression. It provides professionals with one to five-minute conversations and step-by-step guides to help patients incorporate physical activity into their everyday lives.
The Royal College of Physicians’ Excellence in Patient Care Awards recognise, celebrate and promote the work that physicians do to improve patient care through education, policy, clinical practice and research. It includes nine categories and Moving Medicine was selected as the winner of the Patient-Centred Care Award.
The Moving Medicine resources were developed in consultation with over 600 healthcare professionals and patients in partnership with key professional organisations (e.g. the Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of General Practitioners, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and Royal College on Nursing) and health charities (e.g. Cancer Research UK, British Lung Foundation, Mind, Arthritis and
Musculoskeletal Alliance, British Heart Foundation, Arthritis Research UK and Diabetes UK).
Moving Medicine has since developed partnerships with NHS Scotland, Sport Scotland and HSC Northern Ireland. Moving Medicine has also gained international recognition, having been adopted by the Australasian College of Sport and Exercise Physicians.
Never before has physical activity had such an essential role to play in the treatment and prevention of disease as the nation recovers from COVID19. Physical activity has been a key component throughout the national response to the pandemic, with the Chief Medical Officer for England, Prof Chris Whitty saying that “There is no situation, there is no age and no condition where exercise is not a good thing”. In response to demand from patients and health care professionals, Moving Medicine have recently produced patient facing materials to help patients recovering from COVID19 to return to an active lifestyle.
Dr Natasha Jones and Dr Hamish Reid, directors Moving Medicine said: “We are delighted to be recognised by our peers in this way. Moving Medicine is a team effort and we would like to thank and credit every one of the doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, academics and students who have helped us and continue to help us to make this what it is. We are very excited about our new paediatric resources which will help children with long term conditions lead more normal lives. We are also thrilled to be releasing our patient facing resources designed to help people after a significant COVID19 illness.”
Dr John Etherington, President of the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine (UK) said: “The Faculty is delighted that Moving Medicine has received this award – as it recognises the incredible hard work of the team and all the others who have contributed their time, knowledge and expertise to generate this resource”
“Moving Medicine is an outstanding resource, which seeks to radically change the use of physical activity in the management of illness and injury. It is particularly vital at this critical time. The team have responded rapidly to this challenge – as I would have expected – and have already produced guidance for people recovering from the Covid infection.”
Suzanne Gardner, National Partnerships Lead (Health & Inactivity) at Sport England said: “We are delighted that the Moving Medicine resource has received this recognition from the Royal College of Physicians. Partnering with the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine, we are particularly proud of the Moving Medicine website that is helping healthcare professionals discuss and prescribe physical activity to help prevent and manage health conditions.”
“We believe that this resource will become increasingly important in supporting the nation’s health and wellbeing by helping people with or at risk of health conditions to get active and feel supported by their healthcare professionals.”
Dr Mike Brannan, National Lead for Physical Activity at PHE, said: “We are delighted that this award recognises the potential of Moving Medicine to provide healthcare professionals with the latest evidence on how patients can benefit from physical activity to help manage their condition.”
“People with long term health conditions are twice as likely to be amongst the least active. It is never too late to get active to improve your health and every minute counts.”
Moving Medicine is proud to support the effort to get the United Kingdom active again and thanks the RCP for the honour of their recognition.
The Moving Medicine Resource can be found online at www.movingmedicine.ac.uk. It has specific modules for key common conditions: cancer, depression, MSK pain, COPD. Moving Medicine will shortly be releasing new patient resources for people recovering from COVID19. To find out more about these free resources, please contact movingmedicine@fsem.ac.uk