Belfast Arthroplasty Research Trust (BART) was formed in 2002 by surgeons from Musgrave Park Hospital and a mechanical engineer from Queen’s University Belfast. The aim of the charity is to provide funding for various research projects in joint replacement for the benefit of patients in Musgrave Park Hospital and further afield. Since the charity has been established it has raised over £2 million for joint replacement research. The main areas of research are: improvement of the patient experience from first contact to discharge, restoration of leg length during hip replacement, patient satisfaction following knee replacements, blood loss, complications during and after joint replacement and general measures of how our patients do following surgery. BART is interested in any type of research which is of potential benefit to patients.

Musgrave Park Hospital is the regional orthopaedic and rehabilitation centre for Northern Ireland. The hospital performs around 2,500 hip and knee replacements each year, although numbers must increase over the coming years to meet the demands of our population. This makes it one of the largest joint replacement units in the UK.

BART has been involved in the completion of 83 peer reviewed publications since it was established, (View Here), 31 within the last 5 years, and over 250 conference presentations. The research that is carried out at Musgrave Park Hospital would not be possible without the contributions from BART.