Dorset LEP funded Orthopaedic Research Institute calls upon telemedicine

The Dorset LEP funded Orthopaedic Research Institute (ORI) at Bournemouth University (BU) continues to conduct its studies remotely during the COVID-19 outbreak.

This Dorset-based centre of excellence works with local hospitals and industry partners to carry out research aimed at improving current orthopaedic treatments, developing innovative surgical techniques, and testing new technologies to enhance rehabilitation processes.

ORI has been awarded a total of £1,650,000 of Local Growth Fund investment from Dorset LEP since 2015. An initial investment of £700,000 supported ORI to become an established centre of excellence at Bournemouth University with cutting edge facilities such as a virtual reality gait analysis laboratory. The second investment of £950,000 has further enhanced facilities and developed ORI training which is provided to UK and overseas surgeons.

Current ORI studies and trials include a study of robotic arm assisted hip replacements at the Nuffield Health Bournemouth Hospital as well as other hip replacement studies at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

Since national guidance came in to place in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the ORI team have been working from home, and implementing options for their analysis to continue remotely.

Associate Professor Tom Wainwright, ORI’s Deputy Head, shared: “Our studies and trials continue. However, due to COVID-19 social distancing and the closure of our gait laboratory, we have changed our procedures in this interim. We are using telemedicine methods to call our patients who can no longer have their routine appointments.”

“Most of our patients are elderly and are currently shielding. It is important that we continue to monitor their progress and provide them with patient specific advice. We are also in the process of creating a number of online videos for our patients which they can view from home.”

“I am very proud of how the ORI team have responded, we are in regular contact with our patients and each other. Our ORI team of 10, plus 2 PhD students, have a video call every morning at 9am, and morale and productivity have remained high since lockdown began.”

As well as the introduction of these measures, Associate Professor Wainwright, in partnership with Bournemouth based Consultant Physiotherapist Matthew Low, has published an article in the Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine on the rehabilitation of COVID-19 patients. The paper discusses the future challenge for rehabilitation and the importance of self-management strategies.

Though ORI studies continue, the team does so without the Head of ORI, Professor Robert Middleton, who has recently been appointed as a Medical Commander at Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to help in the fight against COVID-19.

Professor Middleton shared: “For over twenty years, I’ve done the same job every day of the week, and around 90% of my work has been with patients, either operating or seeing them in the clinics, or doing ward rounds. That has changed entirely, and now 100% of my work involves management and organising a response to the current pandemic. All my elective work and clinics have stopped because we have been freeing up hospital space for patients with COVID-19.”

Read Professor Middleton’s full comments about his appointment as Medical Commander on the ORI website.

ORI are still very busy during COVID-19 but are using any available time to apply for grants to fund future research after the pandemic. Visit the ORI website for more information about their studies and on-going response to COVID-19.