OSCAR
About The Orthopaedic Institute
The Orthopaedic Institute Limited founded in 1971, is a registered national charity and through voluntary contributions, helps to support training and research for patient benefit in the specialist departments within the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital.
Teaching
In addition to helping to fund educational facilities we organise specialist training courses for orthopaedic trainees and our allied health care professionals.
Our flagship courses, the Clinical Examination and Viva Courses, have earned world-class reputations. This has been built on the participation of our patients and the highest quality Lecturers and Examiners.
Click below for a full programme of courses for the coming year:
Research
Our research studies investigate conditions that affect the musculo-skeletal system and the advancement of care of these conditions including arthritis and rheumatism, orthopaedic conditions of childhood including cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy, joint replacement and cellular techniques for repair and healing.
Colleagues are encouraged to engage in research studies and our Research Panel, along with stringent peer review, approve projects for funding. The range of research is impressive, from clinical trials in common orthopaedics to molecular biology approaches in less common forms of muscular dystrophies and gait analysis in children with cerebral palsy. All well designed studies on such conditions affecting patients attending our hospital are given full consideration for funding from the Orthopaedic Institute Ltd.
Further details and an application from may be obtained from Judith Harris (Institute Administrator) in the Post Graduate Office:
Current Projects
The Institute works closely with the RJAH Trust to take forward important initiatives such as;
Cell Therapy Unit
Financed by the Orthopaedic Institute twenty years ago, the Oscell Cell Therapy Unit provides cells for clinical trials intorepair of damaged joint cartilage. Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (ACI), is a technique used to help patients with an articular cartilage defect, something that can impact younger people in their 20s and 30s. The procedure sees a sample of cartilage removed from the patient’s knee from which their own cells are then grown in a laboratory.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) concluded the evidence to be enough to approve the technique for wider use on the NHS.
We are the only site in the UK currently able to offer ACI.
Veterans’ Outpatient Centre
This important initiative is the first of its kind in the UK. We are pleased to support a fund to finance the specialised training of clinicians who will work in the new centre.
Education/Training Centre
The Institute has worked with the hospital to upgrade our current Lecture Theatre and Library and funded the first stage of a business plan to allow an expansion of training for all clinical specialties.
A more comprehensive list of projects currently being supported by the Orthopaedic Institute may be found :