At 16, Tom Buttel suffered a knee injury while playing rugby, and while that incident happened more than 40 years ago, it continues to impact his life today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At 60 Tom has advanced osteoarthritis in his right knee after the debilitating condition took hold in his mid-20s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tom underwent several surgeries over a 15 year period and has now lived with osteoarthritis for many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cIt has a huge impact on my life, but I have developed the skills to manage the condition and have learnt a great deal about osteoarthritis and self care,\u201d Tom said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs I\u2019m getting older, my arthritis is naturally not improving, but I\u2019m in a better position to manage the condition and reduce its symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe best treatment has been a chronic care program involving clinician\/researchers from the Kolling Institute which focuses on losing weight and specialised exercises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been very helpful for me in recent years and the multi-disciplinary team has been tremendously supportive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe program has adopted an evidenced-based approach developed through a series of research initiatives. You really are receiving the best care if it\u2019s informed by the latest research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have been fortunate to have been supported by some of the Kolling\u2019s impressive clinican\/researchers including Professors Hunter, March and Little and I\u2019ve benefitted from their expertise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey are leading experts in their field and that gives you a huge amount of confidence that you are receiving the best care and advice.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Convinced of the importance of evidenced-based care, Tom has taken part in a collection of research trials and continues to support patient advocacy initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cI feel the more you give, the more you receive. I\u2019ve met some wonderful people and they\u2019ve inspired me as a patient to try a little harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSeeing that level of care and dedication from those looking after you encourages you as a patient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll these years later, I\u2019m in better shape as a result of the care and treatment I\u2019ve received, and I\u2019m keen to do what I can to support research and help more people benefit from evidenced-based care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt can dramatically improve their condition and ultimately quality of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m keen to do what I can to support research and help more people benefit from evidenced-based care.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1945,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"research-group-tax":[],"primary-research-area":[],"class_list":["post-1944","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Tom-for-website1_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Tom-for-website1_w550_h380_fcrop-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Tom-for-website1_w550_h380_fcrop-300x207.webp",300,207,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Tom-for-website1_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false],"large":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Tom-for-website1_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Tom-for-website1_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Tom-for-website1_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"ict-wordpress-support@sydney.edu.au","author_link":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/author\/ict-wordpress-supportsydney-edu-au\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"At 16, Tom Buttel suffered a knee injury while playing rugby, and while that incident happened more than 40 years ago, it continues to impact his life today. At 60 Tom has advanced osteoarthritis in his right knee after the debilitating condition took hold in his mid-20s. Tom underwent several surgeries over a 15 year…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5245,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1944\/revisions\/5245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1944"},{"taxonomy":"research-group-tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-group-tax?post=1944"},{"taxonomy":"primary-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary-research-area?post=1944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}