Worldwide Efforts to Break the Fragility Fracture Cycle Presented in Bordeaux / IOF to Launch 'Capture the Fracture' Platform for Coordinator Based Models of Post-Fracture Care

BORDEAUX, France, March 22, 2012 /CNW/ - Today, at the European Congress on Osteoporosis & Osteoarthritis, healthcare experts and national patient society advocates from around the world attended a special session devoted to the problem of secondary fractures and their prevention.

At the heart of the problem is the fact that a patient who has experienced a prior fracture is at double the risk of a secondary fracture. Yet despite this high risk, the majority of fracture patients are neither assessed, nor treated, for osteoporosis - the disease which is the underlying cause of fragility fractures. Fractures are a major cause of suffering and disability, resulting in enormous health care costs worldwide.

Keynote speaker, Professor Kristina Akesson, chair of the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) Fracture Working Group, unveiled IOF plans to launch the 'Capture the Fracture Campaign', a new global initiative that will facilitate the implementation of coordinator based, multidisciplinary models of care for secondary fracture prevention. She noted, "In almost all countries, there is a serious 'care gap' following a fracture. We believe that coordinator based, multidisciplinary models of care represent the single most effective strategy to directly improve patient care and thereby reduce spiralling fracture-related healthcare costs."

IOF COO Judy Stenmark urged health policy makers to take action. "In order to achieve a significant reduction in fracture rates, healthcare systems must target those patients at greatest risk. With 'Capture the Fracture' IOF will inform and mobilize health care givers worldwide in a concerted global effort to reduce the burden of secondary fractures."

To learn about IOF visit: http://www.iofbonehealth.org

The Capture the Fracture session was supported by an unrestricted grant from Eli Lilly.

Shannon MacDonald 
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