Our current Newsletter is available to download in pdf format here:
BAPAM Newsletter February 2012
You can subscribe to the Newsletter by putting your email address in the box to the right of this page.
Are you a musician with focal hand dystonia?
An NHS team co-ordinated by Dr Mark Edwards (who is also Neurology Advisor to BAPAM) is conducting research into musicians’ dystonia. A number of exciting projects with the aims of better understanding this condition, and hopefully developing new treatments, are currently running.
The team are recruiting enthusiastic musicians for a retraining programme to help establish the most effective treatment strategy. The studies will be conducted at the Institute of Neurology in Queen Square, London which is a leading UK establishment in dystonia research. The work is co-ordinated by Senior Lecturer Dr Mark J Edwards and two PhD students, Dr Anna Sadnicka and Dr Panagiotis Kassavetis. At this time the team is specifically recruiting musicians with dystonia affecting the hand.
If you have this form of dystonia and are interested in taking part in studies (or if you are healthy and wish to register as a healthy volunteer) or have further questions please contact: Dr Mark Edwards, Sobell Department, 33 Queen Square, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, WC1N 3BG.
Or email Dr Edwards via: m.j.edwards@ucl.ac.uk.
Note: BAPAM is not involved with organising or overseeing this project.
Physiotherapist and former professional horn player, Patrice Berque, has been awarded the Susanne Klein-Vogelbach Special Award 2011 for his paper, A combination of constraint-induced therapy and motor control retraining and motor control retraining in the treatment of focal hand dystonia in musicians (Medical Problems of Performing Artists, vol.25:149-161).
The prize is awarded to researchers in neuroscience, orthopaedics, and anatomy whose work is oriented to a better understanding of the underlying principles of human movement and its rehabilitation, with the Special Award being granted to excellent papers from the field of physiotherapy. Movement in this context is not restricted to locomotion, rather it covers all kinds of muscular-induced human movement including mime and music. This is only the third time the Special Award has been given (it was previously won in 2004 and 2010).
Medical practitioners involved in research may be interested in applying for the award in future years. There are 2 prizes: the Main Award, endowed with (Swiss Francs) CHF 10,000 and the Special Award, endowed with CHF 2,000. The submission deadline for this year’s prize is 30 September 2012. Click here for more detailed information (Word doc).
BAPAM’s mission is to achieve a healthy performance environment for all performing artists through high quality and effective specialist health care, health promotion strategies, and professional development and training in Performing Arts Medicine for health care practitioners.
BAPAM Trustee, Dr Deborah Charnock, has been responsible for helping BAPAM develop a programme of evaluation and research to underpin this mission.
This report summarises evaluation and research activities and outcomes at BAPAM since the establishment of the Service Evaluation and Research Advisory Group (SERAG). The outcomes have informed several recommendations relating to governance, operations and future research which are outlined in the report. A draft research work programme for 2011-13 is also included.
Download the report:
Requests for further information relating to this report should be directed to Dr Deborah Charnock via deborah@bapam.org.uk
This event is almost sold out. To book your place, register now.
The Royal Society of Medicine and Dance UK have once again come together to organise a one-day dance and sports medicine conference. These two areas have much in common in terms of the demands placed on the human body and mind, and the run up to the London 2012 Olympics seems a great moment to learn from each other. In these two high performance environments risk of injury is ever present and its effects can jeopardise careers. There has already been a certain amount of cross fertilisation between the worlds of sports and dance medicine, with an increasing number of practitioners having worked with both athletes and dancers.
For all the info and to book your place, click here.
Bookings are now open for the Foundations for Excellence Conference 2011 which takes place Monday 28 February – Tuesday 1 March at Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6DE.
Foundations for Excellence began as a Department for Children, Schools and Families’ Music and Dance Scheme conference in 2009 and now aims to provide practitioners, young musicians and dancers with access to current research, ideas, examples and good practice.
The 2011 conference gathers internationally recognised speakers (including Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist to BAPAM, Professor Rodney Grahame) to explore topics surrounding the nurturing and supporting of talented young dancers and musicians. Topics to be covered include:
Is Talent Innate or Trainable?
Ability or Image?
Developing and Supporting the Teacher
Matching Dreams with Reality
Lifestyle Strategies to Combat Performance Anxiety
Masterclass observation
Hypermobility
Training
Challenging Physiques
Teaching Young Voices Safely
Motivation and Goals
Supporting the Teacher’s Voice
Here’s the official flyer (or click on the image above): F4E Conference 2011
For further information and to book your place please visit the Foundations for Excellence website.
Between September and December we will be conducting a telephone survey of a random sample of performers who visited BAPAM’s London clinic earlier in the year.
The aim of the survey is to learn about performers’ experiences at the clinic and in the months afterwards, and whether or not visiting BAPAM has been helpful. We hope the survey will enable us to assess BAPAM’s services, highlight any aspects that we may need to improve, and provide a broad understanding of the most effective treatment and care for performers’ health problems. The survey results will also help us design a routine follow-up questionnaire for all performers visiting BAPAM in future.
Participation is voluntary.
The survey is being co-ordinated by BAPAM’s Dan Hayhurst and Dr Deborah Charnock, a Trustee and Chair of BAPAM’s research group. Deborah will be conducting the interviews: she is an experienced researcher and has developed BAPAM’s Research Policy, and will ensure that any information you provide is kept strictly confidential and is anonymised in any analysis and report arising from the survey.