The seventh NOA webinar in the alliance’s COVID-19 webinar series took place last week. The session highlighted innovation and communication changes undertaken during the pandemic, and explored which of those could become the ‘new normal’ in musculoskeletal services moving forward.
Cormac Kelly, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and facilitator of the NOA COVID-19 webinar series opened the session with an update on the latest news in relation to orthopaedics and the pandemic. He then introduced the innovation and communication theme, giving his view on the good, and not so good, aspects of innovation and communication among NHS staff and with patients.
Fergal Monsell, Co-editor of The Transient Journal of Trauma, Orthopaedics and the Coronavirus gave attendees an insight into the motivation behind the new publication which launched toward the beginning of the pandemic. The magazine originally focused on the rapid dissemination of orthopaedic information in relation to COVID-19 as it evolved. The editorial team is now encouraging article submissions around what we as an orthopaedic community need to do now at this stage of COVID-19.
Julian Owen, President, British Orthopaedic Directors Society highlighted the work of BODS – an association which provides a forum for discussion of the issues facing Clinical Directors and Lead Clinicians in Trauma and Orthopaedics across the UK. Julian outlined how BODS used communication methods such as Zoom and Whattsapp in response to COVID-19 to share knowledge and build a support network.
Shaid Hussain, Senior Data Sharing & Privacy Manager at NHSX, which drives the digital transformation of care, joined the webinar to give his take on the Zoom vs Microsoft Teams discussion, highlighting pros and cons of each. Shaid also gave advice on steps to take when considering a new video conferencing platform.
The webinar recording can be viewed here. Launched during the peak of the pandemic in April, the successful NOA COVID-19 webinar series seeks to tackle various aspects of the challenge to deliver orthopaedic surgery during these challenging times. Details of the next NOA webinar will be shared soon. For more information, email info.noa@nhs.net