New Medical Advisory Board to Set Benchmark for Delivery of Rehab Services

23 May 2006

Croydon – A top level medical advisory board is to set an industry benchmark for the delivery of rehabilitation services for personal injury cases.

The announcement by Health & Case Management Limited (HCML), the country’s largest rehabilitation case management provider, will ensure the industry works to a standard of care and quality devised by the UK’s leading clinical authorities.

Headed up by Professor Mansel Aylward, the former Chief Medical Officer at Department for Work and Pensions and architect of the Government's Pathways to Work initiative, the new Medical Advisory Board will support HCML's intention to capitalise on the significant research and pilot studies undertaken to date, and develop further the more effective, evidence based, delivery of its rehabilitation, return–to-work, and recovery services.

Many of the HCML initiatives are already seen as industry benchmarks for quality delivery of rehabilitation services. Additional standards of clinical care are to be launched over the coming months.

Helen Merfield Chief Executive of HCML said: “The UK rehabilitation industry continues to grow and it is the responsibility of established businesses to ensure that a consistent theoretical and audited approach is applied across their case files.

“With the guidance of some of the UK’s leading clinical authorities, HCML will continue to drive our established independence and enhance our already successful business model.”
Other key members of the new medical board include Professor Kim Burton, ergonomist and clinical scientist involved in implementation of evidence-based practice, Doctor Nick Kendall who devised an approach to psychosocial factors called ‘yellow flags’ that indicates psychosocial barriers to recovery and Doctor Mark Gabbay, Head of the Primary Care Division at the University of Liverpool and Director o Mersey Primary Care R&D Consortium.

The new medical board will work closely with HCML to augment clinical governance and enhance technical best practice whilst contributing to the overall strategic development of HCML’s business.

On his appointment to the board, Professor Mansel Aylward commented: “It is so very important that standards are set to ensure quality delivery of rehabilitation and return to work initiatives, and that an agreed process of accreditation is put in place to confirm the competencies, practices and expertise of rehabilitation providers. I share HCML’s commitment to these goals and I am delighted to join the HCML
Advisory Board”

Added Professor Kim Burton: “In recent years scientists have learned a great deal about rehabilitation for common health problems but implementation will require a concerted approach.”

“Importantly, we have learned a lot about the huge influence of obstacles to recovery - getting all the players onside is key. This is where HCML, with its evolving evidence-based approach, has the potential to make a major contribution.”

About the HCML Board Members

Professor Mansel Aylward CB MD FRCP FFOM FFPM
Professor Mansel Aylward CB is Chair of the Wales Centre for Health, a new Public Body leading improvements in the nation’s health and wellbeing. He is also Director of the UnumProvident Centre for Psychosocial and Disability Research at Cardiff University which offers a unique opportunity to extend knowledge and understanding of the psychosocial, economic and cultural factors that influence health, illness, recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration. In 2005 he was elected to the new Health Honours Committee, designed to make the system more transparent. He also recently became a Trustee of The Shaw Trust which provides training and work opportunities for people disadvantaged in the labour market due to disability, ill health, or other social circumstances.

From 1996 to April 2005 he was Chief Medical Adviser, Medical Director and Chief Scientist to the UK’s Department for Work and Pensions. He was also Chief Medical Adviser and Head of Profession at the
Veterans' Agency, Ministry of Defence. In 2001 he was appointed as The Royal Society of Medicine's Academic Sub Dean for Wales.

Professor Kim Burton PhD, DO, Eur Erg
Professor Kim Burton is the Director of the Spinal Research Unit at the University of Huddersfield. The unit's primary research focus has been on the biomechanical and psychosocial aspects of occupational low back pain. The unit also collaborates on various projects around rehabilitation for common health problems. In addition, Kim was involved in developing both primary care and occupational health nguidelines for acute low back pain in the UK, as well as the European Guidelines for Prevention in Low Back Pain, and has been instrumental in developing evidence-based patient educational material.

Dr. Nick Kendall PhD, DipClinPsych, MNZCCP
Nick Kendall trained as a clinical psychologist and completed his PhD in chronic pain management. He established cognitive-behavioural pain management programmes including innovative return to work methods, and served as clinical director of a large multidisciplinary pain management service at Burwood Hospital in Christchurch, New Zealand. He also worked as senior lecturer in Orthopaedic Surgery & Musculoskeletal Medicine at the University of
Otago, and coordinated the postgraduate courses in musculoskeletal medicine that are distance-taught throughout NZ and Australia. Nick served as president of the NZ Pain Society, and on the editorial board of the journal “Pain”.

He chaired the expert panel for the NZ Acute Low Back Pain guideline project, and devised an approach to psychosocial factors called “yellow flags”, and developed back pain guidance for employers and case managers. Subsequently he served as the national manager for evidence-based healthcare for the Accident Compensation Corporation of NZ. For the past 3 years he has worked as an independent health services consultant in London, and continues to focus on orthopaedics and musculoskeletal medicine, evidence-based clinical practice, excellence in case management and vocational rehabilitation.

Dr. Mark Gabbay
Dr Mark Gabbay is head of the division of Primary Care at the University of Liverpool, Director of Mersey Primary Care R&D Consortium and Associate Director of Health R&D NoW. He also works as a GP in Liverpool. His research interests focus particularly on health services research in general, and mental health and fitness for work in particular. He leads the Fit for Work Research Group based in Liverpool University, which is part of the DWP research framework. Recent research has explored the process of and reasons for sickness certification in Primary Care. His clinical interests include mental health and substance misuse, and he is an academic advisor to the Royal College of GPs in that capacity.

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