Hi I am Tracey Howe. I am a Professor of Rehabilitation Sciences at Glasgow Caledonian University, UK and Deputy Chair of Glasgow City of Science. I am also an editor for the Cochrane Musculoskeletal Review Group and a convenor for the Cochrane Health Care of Older People Field. I am a Trustee of the Picker Institute Europe.
I started my career as a physiotherapist in the National Health Service in England. I have extensive experience of assessing the quality of research in Universities in the UK and internationally. I enjoy strategic visioning, creative problem-solving, and creating vibrant, multi-disciplinary environments, through collaboration, partnerships, and relationships, that empower others to succeed.
What to do Musculoskeletal Elves do on a cold Sunday morning in December? As you know we have been having a physical activity theme to our blogs recently. Well Elves like to keep active and so this Sunday I changed out of my Elf outfit and into the outfit I borrowed from Santa, complete with [read the full story…]
Have you ever taken part in or even taught a Pilates class? Do you really know what it is and could you define it for others? We were interested to read a recently published paper by authors from Australia that aimed to describe Pilates exercise according to peer-reviewed literature, and compare definitions used in papers [read the full story…]
It’s been a very exciting week in our Musculoskeletal Elf’s woodland. Two of our Elves, Dr Heather Gray and Dr Lesley Dawson graduated this week with Professional Doctorates from Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland. Heather and Lesley are both Chartered Physiotherapists. Heather works at Glasgow Caledonian University and Lesley works as an Extended Scope Practitioner at [read the full story…]
We Elves know that exercise is critical in the prevention of disease and evidence for the benefit of exercise in many forms of disease. This is highly relevant as our 5×50 worldwide exercise flash-mob challenge about to start on Friday 23rd November (see earlier post). Don’t forget to sign up for and join the Musculoskeletal [read the full story…]
Are you part of it? Join the Musculoskeletal Elves Team (on the 5×50 registration website #TheMSK_Elf). By running, walking, cycling 5k a day for the 7 days from 23rd to 29th November the organisers aim to cover the equivalent distance of 5 times round the world. It’s not aimed at the fit – it’s about [read the full story…]
We are continuing our theme this week of exercise and physical activity as the 5×50 worldwide exercise flash-mob challenge starts on Friday 23rd November (see earlier post) Do you know anyone who is waiting for a knee or hip joint replacement? They typically experience pain, reduced muscle strength and function. So how can they prepare [read the full story…]
With our 5×50 worldwide exercise flash-mob challenge about to start on Friday 23rd November (see earlier post) we thought we would have a look at evidence related to physical activity and exercise for people with musculoskeletal conditions. The majority of research on people with RA has focused on the effect of exercise training with benefits [read the full story…]
We Elves know that physical activity is beneficial for health and well-being and we also know that sometimes we just don’t do enough of it. Well here is a great opportunity for us all to kick start our activity and also be part of something very big. The enthusiastic friends of Musculoskeletal Elf in Scotland [read the full story…]
As MSK elves we already know shoulder pain is one of the most common presenting musculoskeletal conditions accounting for between 7 -26% of general practitioner consultations in the UK. There are a variety of causes of shoulder pain and some of our previous blogs have discussed challenges to developing an acurate diagnosis. Once we have our appropriately [read the full story…]
Have you ever had a painful shoulder? Did it get better on its own? I have a friend, not another Elf, who had bilateral frozen shoulders. It was a most functionally limiting and painful problem. Fortunately intra-articular steroid injections saved the day and made a huge difference to both pain and function. If you have [read the full story…]
