About Us
Paediatric Musculoskeletal Matters (PMM) is a free evidence based, online learning tool and information resource about paediatric musculoskeletal (MSK) medicine.
Why is PMM needed ?
- Around the world it is estimated that there are millions of children with MSK conditions - many are in parts of the world with little or no access to specialist care.
- Many of the MSK conditions in children and young people are treatable and disability can be prevented or at least mitigated by early and accurate diagnosis and access to right care delivered by a trained workforce.
- The stark reality is that in many parts of the world, there are few or no specialist teams available and medicines are not available or accessible due to cost or logistical issues. The inequity is therefore increasingly evident.
- PMM aims to raise awareness about MSK medicine amongst student health care professionals and clinicians who may not necessarily have had much training or experience in and paediatric MSK medicine. These clinicians however are integral to facilitate early diagnosis and instigate access to specialist opinion and management.
How was PMM developed ?
- The first iteration of PMM 2014 focused on the needs of doctors and medical students and the partner site for nurses and students - PMM-Nursing - was launched in 2017. Following feedback from our users around the world a further iteration of PMM was launched in 2018 with new content contributions from our many global partners to reflect the paediatric musculoskeletal medicine in different health care contexts.
- A full list of contributors to PMM up to and including the 2018 iteration is available.
- The content for PMM-Nursing evolved from research to find out what nurses need to know. Nurses from a wide spread of health care contexts have contributed to the content of PMM-Nursing and nurse students, nurses and nurse educators provided guidance about the format and layout.
- PMM-Nursing was initially developed by a team from Newcastle upon Tyne, UK led by Professor Helen Foster at Newcastle University, UK in collaboration with Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
- We gratefully acknowledge the unrestricted educational bursary from Pfizer to undertake the work to design the PMM platform and engage with end users to develop the content. We also gratefully acknowledge additional unrestricted educational bursaries from Genzyme, BioMarin and Sobi to support the further development of PMM. These funders had no input to the content of PMM.
Transfer of PMM to Paediatric Rheumatology European Society (PReS)
- In May 2022, the PMM Portfolio transferred from Newcastle University UK to PReS.
- This transfer brings long term sustainability for PMM to grow and gives opportunity to reach communities further to raise awareness and facilitate teaching and learning about MSK conditions in children and young people.
- There is a global PMM Editorial Board to ensure that PMM covers the breadth of MSK and remains useful and relevant to the wider community.
- PMM remains free, open to all and the urls will not change as a result of the changes.
- PMM remains closely aligned with the Paediatric Global MSK Task Force.
