MSK team wins Great Foundations Award for podiatric research in foot health

A team of researchers in the School of Health and Life Sciences’ Research Centre for Health (ReaCH) have received funding to investigate how ultrasound scans may improve painful musculoskeletal (MSK) foot problems.

The project starts in February 2024 and Dr Lisa Wright, Senior Lecturer in Podiatry in the Department of Podiatry and Radiography, is Principal Investigator in the study with former PhD student Anika Hoque out in the field working with NHS Ayrshire and Arran and NHS Lanarkshire gathering data.

The Glasgow Caledonian University team behind the successful £121,613 bid for the Great Foundations Award funding were Dr Wright, Anika, Professor Martijn Steultjens, Dr Ruth Barn, Dr David Hamilton and Dr Diane Dickson, from the ReaCH Musculoskeletal Health Research Group.

Anika explained that over the next two years she will be working with MSK Advanced Podiatrists Katy Knox and former GCU student Dr Aimie Patience, along with Dr Andrew Brown, an Advanced Practice Podiatrist in Orthopaedics, from NHS Ayrshire and Arran, who use ultrasound in foot health diagnosis. She will also be working with Stuart McNeill, an MSK Clinical Lead Podiatrist, and Dr Claire James, from the University’s partner health board NHS Lanarkshire, where ultrasound is not commonly used for this purpose.

The Great Foundations Award is administered by the Central and North West London (CNWL) NHS Foundation Trust Charitable Fund. It was established more than 30 years ago through a permanent Endowment as the Dr William M. Scholl Unit for Podiatric Development to support research into children’s foot health, feet affected by arthritis and stroke, and to give people with foot health problems a voice.

The Foundation supports research projects and post-graduate studies by health professionals. The ReaCH MSK team thought this funding stream would be an excellent opportunity to support Anika’s post-doctoral opportunities after her PhD.

Anika has already had two research papers published in peer-reviewed journals as part of Anika's PhD studies. The first examined patients' and clinicians' perceptions of the clinical value of a patient-reported outcome measure, known as the Rheumatoid Arthritis Foot Disease Activity Index (RADAI-F5). The second publication focused on comparing the RADAI-F5 to MSK ultrasound and clinical examination of the foot in the rheumatoid arthritis population.

She is excited about getting started on her new research journey into finding out if using ultrasound improves complex foot problems or not.

Anika explained: “We want to target complex tendon foot problems that don’t have a clear clinical pathway such as plantar fasciitis and Achilles tendinopathy.

“We will be comparing the NHS sites that have ultrasound to those that don’t. I’ll be spending time at Ayrshire and Arran where ultrasound services are available, to assess whether having scans improves foot pain and function, patient satisfaction and care, leads to earlier diagnosis, and facilitates earlier management interventions of complex MSK foot problems. This will be compared with the approach at NHS Lanarkshire, where ultrasound is not commonly used for foot health diagnoses.

“I want to see how foot problems can be managed differently if you have imaging techniques versus if you don’t. Once I have all the data, I will be working with the ReaCH MSK research team to analyse all the patient outcomes to come up with a conclusion. The findings from this study will help create simple guidelines to decide when it's best to use ultrasound for painful foot problems."

Dr Wright said: “We are privileged to be awarded with Great Foundations funding for this project, which presents an exciting opportunity for Anika and the team to work alongside our clinical partners to better understand the impact of ultrasound assessment on foot care; whereby ultrasound is increasingly used but under-researched. The ReaCH MSK research team look forward to developing their existing research portfolio in this field under Anika’s leadership, drawing on collective group expertise and experience in diagnostic ultrasound imaging for a range of MSK problems.”