A Quick Reference Guide, A year on...

Poster titled “The Hypermobility Syndromes quick reference guide” for GPs, showing Beighton Score criteria, key symptoms and signs, associated conditions like PoTS and MCAS, and diagnostic and management steps.

It's been just over a year since we first shared draft copies of our new Quick Reference Guide with medical professionals at conferences (part of the refinement process), resulting in immediate demands for a download link long before we'd launched it. We knew it was going to be popular... As awareness about the medical, occupational, social and neurodevelopmental issues that can be associated with hypermobility increases, so does the number of patients seeking help, and we know from our conversations and experience with professionals that many departments are overwhelmed by, or uncertain what to do with these patients.

Created by Lead Clinical Advisor, Dr Philip Bull, and our Professional Education Coordinator, Kim Clayden in collaboration with the HMSA, the resource is intended to provide GPs and other clinicians with a handy guide to help them swiftly recognise, diagnose and establish how to implement a management plan, so that patients can learn to live well with their symptomatic hypermobility. The QRG includes signs and symptoms, tips for spotting rarer forms of symptomatic hypermobility such as Marfan's, Osteogenesis imperfecta, Pseudoxanthoma elasticum, and many others - all with links to our resources section for additional learnings, which will constantly evolve over time.

It's been viewed and downloaded thousands of times since then, was sent out (with bonus poster on reverse) to everyone eligible for our most recent journal, is consistently one of our most frequently requested links, and is rapidly becoming a go-to resource for GPs wanting to help patients get support appropriate to their particular needs, often in the community, so much more accessible and faster (this is critical as earlier support improves outcomes for those affected, and reduces the need for more invasive interventions later).

We're hugely proud of it and we love to hear from people who've used it to access help through either their GP or local MSK service, in some cases after having previously met with blank stares and misconceptions about what they need. So, happy birthday QRG, and great job well done by everyone involved in it's creation. Here's to many more years of simplified access to support as, where, and when patients need it.

You can buy a hard copy of the QRG here in our shop. The QR code links professionals back to the Clinician's Guide, providing more detailed information on how they can help.

You can view the document on the web here (your device may also offer you the option to save it).

You can download the guide from our clinician's guide here (right click/long press the purple box in the introduction/or the link in this sentence to save the file to your device).