The purpose of the BOS Patient Panel is to gain objective input from patients, who have an interest in healthcare and orthodontics, to enhance the quality of BOS’s patient facing communications. It will strengthen the BOS charitable remit by providing information that has been considered by patients.
The first members of the new patient panel include:
- Neil Hillyard is the creator of the popular ukadultbraces.co.uk blog which publishes articles for adults considering and undertaking orthodontic treatment. The site is non-commercial and read by both patients and dental professionals. It contains a wide variety of articles that seek to raise awareness of the full range of orthodontic treatment options available. Neil recently undertook dual arch fixed appliance treatment as an adult.
- Tim Newton is Professor of Psychology as Applied to Dentistry at King’s College London Dental Institute. Tim has worked in the behavioural sciences in relation to dentistry for over 20 years and his particular interests include the management of dental anxiety, the working life of the dental team and patients’ perceptions of treatment. He regularly supports the work of BOS and, with a son currently undergoing orthodontic treatment, has an added interest in creating readable and helpful information for parents.
- With a background in arts and consumer journalism, Anna Lambert has had a steep learning curve since taking on editorship of The Probe two years ago. She is the mother of daughters aged 12 and 14, with the elder currently in the middle of NHS ortho treatment (and wearing her braces with pride!).
Welcoming the new panel, Alison Murray, president, said, “We really value the views of this new panel. We know it will enhance our patient facing communications.”