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Clinical guidelines for Musculoskeletal Diseases (OA, RA, JIA, OP)

The RACGP has developed national musculoskeletal clinical guidelines for general practitioners and other primary care health professionals for osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis and osteoporosis.

The four clinical guidelines have been developed to the requirements of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). A critical part of the guideline development process was a public consultation with the stakeholders on the draft documents that ended on 1 June, 2008.

The project has been developed by Working Groups for each guideline. The Working Groups included GPs, rheumatologists, consumers, and allied health professionals. With funding from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, project officers and expert Working Group members identified and reviewed the best evidence for primary care and compiled the strength of the body of evidence for the Australian guidelines.

The osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis guidelines have passed the Independent Review and received final approval from the NHMRC. The guidelines can be downloaded below. Each clinical guideline includes:

• algorithms (diagnosis and management) that are designed to be reference tools during consultations
• graded recommendations that provide a summary and grading of the best available evidence.

Two additional documents provide support for each of the clinical guidelines and are intended to be read in conjunction with the guidelines:

• full recommendations presenting the body of evidence and the grading for each component of the NHMRC matrix
• a detailed literature review supporting the guideline that presents the body of literature published on the topic, the search strategy and the search results.

The osteoporosis guideline is currently undergoing the Independent Review process and assessment by the NHMRC and the final version will be available towards the end of 2009.

As part of the project, the RACGP has also developed a GP based multidisciplinary joint replacement assessment tool “Referral for Joint Replacement” that can also be downloaded below.

For further information or queries please contact musculoskeletal@racgp.org.au

Publication Date: 10 September 2009