Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory joint disease frequently involving joints of the hands and wrists. Hand exercises play an integral part in the conservative management and rehabilitation of people with hand problems due to rheumatoid arthritis.
We developed an individually tailored progressive exercise programme called Strengthening and Stretching for the Rheumatoid Arthritis of the Hand (SARAH) programme which was found to be a clinically effective and a low-cost intervention for improving hand function and quality of life in a large clinical trial involving people with rheumatoid arthritis.
The SARAH exercise programme has been recommended in the NICE guidelines NG 100: Rheumatoid arthritis in adults: management. To support clinicians, adopt and correctly apply the SARAH exercise programme into their daily therapy service, we have designed this online training programme (iSARAH). The potential impact of implementing SARAH will be a reduction in costs to the NHS and to raise the standards of intervention for rheumatoid arthritis. iSARAH has been developed by the SARAH implementation team from the Rehabilitation Research in Oxford (RRIO) group.
This work was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care Oxford at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. This work was supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health.
If you need further information about iSARAH training, please contact us at the University of Oxford by phone 01865737907 or email Dr. Cynthia Srikesavan at sarahexercise@ndorms.ox.ac.uk.
iSARAH team
Dr. Esther Williamson: https://www.ndorms.ox.ac.uk/team/esther-williamson
Dr. Cynthia Srikesavan: https://www.ndorms.ox.ac.uk/team/cynthia-srikesavan
Ms. Lucy Eldridge: https://www.octru.ox.ac.uk/team/lucy-eldridge
Dr. Peter Heine: https://www.ndorms.ox.ac.uk/team/peter-heine
Mr. Tim Cranston: https://www.octru.ox.ac.uk/team/tim-cranston
Prof.Jo Adams: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/healthsciences/about/staff/jo_adams.page
Prof. Sarah E Lamb: https://www.ndorms.ox.ac.uk/team/sarah-lamb
iSARAH team
