Ailsa Bosworth

Biography Ailsa Bosworth MBE – Founder and National Patient Champion, National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) With a professional background in business senior management and marketing in the fields of engineering, computers and audio-visual technologies, Ailsa has lived with severe sero-negative polyarthritis for over 40 years. She founded award-winning charity NRAS in 2001 and led its development into an internationally respected and influential membership organisation for 18 years. She stood down as CEO in June 2019 and took on a part time role as National Patient Champion in order to have more time to devote to family and pursue her interests in developing self-management resources and doing research. As NCP for NRAS, Ailsa contributes on a regular basis to national standards and guidelines through work with NICE, the British Society for Rheumatology, EULAR and others. She is passionate about supported self-management and was Joint Convenor of a EULAR Taskforce to develop recommendations for health professionals to incorporate supported self-management into routine clinical care in order to promote more holistic, patient centred care of people with inflammatory arthritis. These recommendations were published in 2021. NRAS are leading the way in regard to provision of supported self-management services and resources in RA and are currently adding modules to their e-learning programme SMILE-RA, launched at the end of 2021, so that many more can access the help they need easily and conveniently. In the light of a changed service delivery landscape in rheumatology due to the pandemic, the acquisition of self-management skills by patients is going to be more important than ever. NRAS are passionate believers that when patients and health professionals work together, this powerful combination has a better chance of realising the outcomes that really matter to patients. Ailsa received an MBE for services to people with Rheumatoid Arthritis in the 2016 New Year’s Honours.