Rheumatology Teaching & Research | North Bristol NHS Trust

Strong links with the Musculoskeletal Research Unit at Southmead Hospital Bristol (part of the School of Clinical Sciences, University of Bristol)
Our research interests at the Musculoskeletal Research Unit at Southmead Hosptial Bristol include bone density and fractures in children, osteoporosis and vertebral fractures in older people, high bone mass, hypermobility, scoliosis and the genetics of bone development.
We support and participate in multicentre clinical observational and interventional studies in rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory myositis, systemic sclerosis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis.
North Bristol Trust Rheumatology department is part of several UK/European networks (the Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Network (ERAN), BIAS, TRACE, TCL and (genetic predictors of response to anti-TNF) with collaborations with:
- University of the West of England (UWE)
- University Hospitals Bristol Foundation Trust
- Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath
- University of Oxford
- University of Nottingham

North Bristol NHS Trust hosts an Academy within the University of Bristol Medical School. In rheumatology we help deliver the musculoskeletal element of the Musculoskeletal Diseases, Emergency Medicine and Ophthalmology (MDEMO) course. We host 3rd year medical students for 9 weeks in four blocks throughout the year.
We organise and run teaching and training sessions for junior doctors at North Bristol NHS trust and rheumatology trainees from across the Severn Deanery region. In addition we run teaching sessions for doctors taking their postgraduate examination.