OA Action Alliance Program Updates
The OA Action Alliance welcomes a new Steering Committee
 Please join us in welcoming and congratulating our new Steering Committee! For more details please visit our website. Steering Committee Chair: Tom Trojian, MD, CAQSM, FACSM, a faculty member of the Department of Family, Community & Preventive Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine, and director of the Sports Medicine Fellowship, represents the American Medical Society of Sports Medicine (AMSSM). Dr. Trojian has extensive experience providing guidance on rule changes and state legislation on injury prevention. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the American Medical Society of Sports Medicine (AMSSM). His experience as a practicing sports medicine physician and educator and as representative of the AMSSM were assets in his role as the OAAA Injury Prevention work group chair where he has led efforts to develop effective injury prevention strategies to prevent the onset of OA, including educational brochures of injury prevention strategies for professional and lay public audiences. He is currently leading an effort to develop a lower extremity injury prevention resource library and best practices guide for young athletes.
Steering Committee Vice Chair, Laura Payne, PhD, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), represents the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA). Dr. Payne has been involved with the OAAA as a representative of the National Recreation and Park Association. She is the former Physical Activity Work Group Chair and was directly involved with the development of the 2011 report Environmental and Policy Strategies to Increase Physical Activity Among Adults with Arthritis. She has remained active in OAAA efforts as a member of the physical activity working group and reviewer for the small grants program.
Work Group 1: Policy and Advocacy
Chair: Mari Brick, MA, public health consultant for the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD) and Associate Director of the Quality and Technical Assistance Center-NY at the University of Albany. Mari serves on the steering committee of the Chronic Osteoarthritis Management Initiative (COAMI) and has contributed her expertise to the OAAA as a member of the Physical Activity working group and as a reviewer for the Small Grants Program.
Work Group 2: Community Engagement
 Vice Chair: Cedric X. Bryant, PhD, FACSM, Dr. Bryant is the Chief Science Officer at the American Council on Exercise (ACE) and serves as ACE’s representative to the OAAA. He is a national and international lecturer, writer and subject-matter expert and advances ACE’s mission and impact by staying at the forefront of applied physiological research, exercise training methods and health and fitness trends. Dr. Bryant’s experience with development and implementation of eLearning and other technologies to enhance the educational experience has been instrumental in launching the OAAA’s Implementation Guide to improve access to exercise for adults with arthritis across six key sectors that impact public health. He has been a generous, authoritative and extremely knowledgeable leader of the OAAA Physical Activity working group and looks forward to continuing the work of the OAAA on Group 2.
Work Group 3: Healthcare Systems & Provider Mobilization
Co-chair: Amanda Nelson MD, MSCR, RHMSUS, Assistant Professor in the UNC Thurston Arthritis Research Center. As a rheumatologist, she maintains clinical practice and research interests. She understands both the challenges and best strategies for managing OA from her experience working directly with patients in clinical care and in research. Dr. Nelson represents the American College of Rheumatology and the North Carolina Rheumatology Association. She has previously served as the Chair of the OAAA Weight Management Work Group and is interested in aligning her experience and expertise with Group 3 efforts to impact clinical care for OA.
Co-chair: Alexandra (Alexe) Page, MD is an orthopedic surgeon with Kaiser Permanente. She represents the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the Chronic Osteoarthritis Management Initiative (COAMI). Dr. Page combines private practice with health services research and consulting, including an IOM work group and the Harvard Medical School Health Policy Advisory Committee Cross-specialty national involvement includes serving as the AAOS delegate to the AMA, as a steering committee member of COAMI. Regionally, she is a delegate to the California Medical Association (CMA) and is in the presidential line of the California Orthopaedic Association. As a co-Chair of the OAAA Group 3, Dr. Page will apply her collective experience impacting healthcare systems and clinical care as well as her connection to COAMI and its efforts to develop and disseminate a model of care for OA.
Work Group 5: Osteoarthritis Prevention
Chair: Jeffrey B. Driban, PhD, ATC, CSCS represents the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) and the Athletic Trainers’ Osteoarthritis Consortium (ATOAC). Dr. Driban is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Rheumatology at Tufts University School of Medicine and a member of the Special and Scientific Staff at Tufts Medical Center. Most recently, he has contributed his expertise to the OAAA Injury Prevention Working Group and its task group effort to develop a lower extremity injury prevention resource library and best practices guide. Dr. Driban looks to continue these efforts and explore new avenues to prevent OA on Group 5.
Vice Chair: Stephen P. Messier, PhD represents the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI). Dr. Messier is the Director of the J.B. Snow Biomechanics Laboratory at Wake Forest University and continues to teach undergraduate biomechanics and human gross anatomy as well as graduate biomechanics. Following 26 years of clinical research trial experience concerning osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee, his team of clinicians and researchers are recognized for their research regarding the effects of weight loss and exercise upon knee OA pain, functionality, strength and gait. Dr. Messier is an excellent addition to the OAAA Group 5 to explore efforts to prevent OA through weight management strategies.
(Work Group 4 leaders will be announced in our next newsletter – stay tuned!)
Implementation Strategies to Increase Physical Activity among Adults with Osteoarthritis Grant Program Awardees Announced
The OA Action Alliance launched its first small grant program this year. The grant program was organized by the OAAA Physical Activity Work Group and led by task group leader, Yvonne Golightly, PT, MS, PhD (representing member organization, UNC’s Thurston Arthritis Research Center and Injury Prevention Research Center).
The purpose of the grant program is to engage community organizations and to advance the objectives of the 2011 report, Environmental and Policy Strategies to Increase Physical Activity Among Adults With Arthritis, which focuses on the benefits of physical activity and ways to make it more convenient and accessible to people with arthritis.
In our first year of the small grant program, we received an overwhelmingly positive response, with nearly 40 applications from 19 states, representing a diversity of sectors and geographic locations.
The 2015 awardees include: Arizona State University and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Wellness Program, Wellpath; Associated Recreation Council of Seattle, and the Texas State University Employee Wellness Pilot Program
We thank all of our applicants and reviewers for their participation in this year’s small grant program! We hope to have the fund to continue this program next year. Please stay tuned for updates on our website on each of our awardees.
For more information, please find the press release here.
Stay Connected with Us
We have updated our website and launched our presence on social media platforms including Twitter and Facebook. We see social media as a way to share critical information to our members and provide the public with a better understanding of the work we do. Please like, share and retweet our posts and spread the word about our work and use the hashtag #osteoarthritis in your posts. In the upcoming quarter we hope to launch a regular e-newsletter that complements our social media presence and that highlights news, research, opportunities, events, webinars, and resources from our member organizations.
We love highlighting our work groups and member organizations! If you would like us to feature you or your organization, please send your submission to mylinh.oaaa@gmail.com |
Director’s Corner
