Over the years, through different charitable vehicles, the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) has granted in excess of £5.7 million to support orthopaedic research. As a charity, it relies primarily on voluntary donations. Joint Action has been established by the BOA to help patients by raising funds for research, to improve orthopaedic treatments for future generations.
Joint Action believes that the development of collaborative partnerships between medical research and industry is essential to bring new treatments, ideas and innovations into healthcare settings. Together, we can increase scientific knowledge and understanding and foster the development of new treatments and interventions for both patient and corporate benefit.
The Government, through the UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC) and the recent review of health research funding by Sir David Cooksey (now embodied in the new Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research [OSCHR), has emphasised the need for all parts of the research community to work together in providing beneficial outcomes to the public, patients and to the economy.
As a significant source of funding but also as a patient-focussed organisation, we believe we will play an increasingly important role in this relationship and conduct our corporate fundraising through the good practice guidelines as set out by the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC).
We try not to be prescriptive in our approaches but to provide a route-map for potential corporate involvement from our industry colleagues to build partnerships which ultimately will result in treatments, interventions and innovations of benefit to patients whilst at the same time helping industry meet its own goals and aspirations.
We encourage our corporate colleagues to aspire to best practice in this area while recognising that the challenges we face are often difficult and complex and do not warrant a one-size-fits-all approach.
In all interactions, it is important that we strive to abide by the general principles of Independence, Integrity and Openness. Together, we can help to keep people mobile.
If you wish to speak further about how you can get either your own company or one where you work more involved in charitable giving, then please get in touch to discuss your ideas further.