To mark its 21st anniversary of pioneering bone health, Healthy Bones Australia has announced its partnership with local company CurveBeam AI, to develop a breakthrough diagnostic fracture prediction tool.
Healthy Bones Australia Chairman, Professor Peter Ebeling, says the organisation is proud of its outstanding achievements to date and looking forward to the future. “Over the past 21 years, Healthy Bones Australia has advanced the importance of protecting our Australian population’s bones. During this time, we’ve witnessed substantial change in the healthcare system’s focus on the detection and treatment of osteoporosis, and community and government understanding of the importance of maintaining healthy bones. As recently as 20 years ago, bone health was a largely overlooked and untreated area. It is now recognised as an important chronic disease, and a health priority area for Australia.”
Professor Ebeling outlines five priorities the organisation seeks to realise in the next five years:
- Establish a Fracture Liaison Service in every capital city of Australia
- Deliver comprehensive and updated guidelines for GPs
- Drive 500,000 Australians aged 50+ to undertake Know Your Bonesself-assessment
- Advocate for broader patient access to osteoporosis diagnosis and treatment
- Support new and innovative osteoporosis diagnostic opportunities
He continues, “I am delighted to announce that we are on our way to fulfilling one of our goals by partnering with the Australian company, CurveBeam AI, in the validation of a new diagnostic tool for osteoporosis. Following a decade of research, the new tool OssView™ is a compact, high-resolution CT scanner combined with a new bone fragility software that generates a Structural Fragility Score. An OssView™ result, used with Bone Mineral Density testing, is expected to greatly assist GPs and Specialists with identifying patients who are at high-risk of fracture. The OssView™ test will also help to improve access for elderly people in remote, rural, or nursing home settings, to better inform them and their doctors of their fracture risk, therefore helping target treatment to prevent fragility fractures.”
“Early diagnosis of osteoporosis is crucial to reducing fracture rates, and their subsequent impacts and costs,” adds CEO of Healthy Bones Australia, Greg Lyubomirsky. “We need to focus on prevention, which means understanding risk factors for poor bone health, early diagnosis, and appropriate and prompt treatment. This new diagnostic tool, used with BMD testing, can assist Healthy Bones Australia’s ongoing work in generating awareness of the importance of bone health, to ensure all Australians are better protected against sustaining fractures in the future.”
University of Melbourne Professor and Medical Director of CurveBeam AI, Ego Seeman, also weighs in. “This new diagnostic tool provides a new direction for identifying women at risk of breaking a bone in the next year or two, by measuring their bone structure. This early detection will help doctors to treat before a fracture occurs.”
About Healthy Bones Australia
Healthy Bones Australia, formerly Osteoporosis Australia, is a national, not-for-profit organisation, and the leading consumer body working to reduce unwanted broken bones and improve bone health across Australia. Healthy Bones Australia was established in 2001 in response to the then growing number of Australians with poor bone health, and lack of health focus on preventing osteoporosis. Healthy Bones Australia strives to increase community and health professional awareness of osteoporosis and advocating to government, to reduce the impact of the disease nation-wide.
To learn more about Healthy Bones Australia, head to healthybonesaustralia.org.au.
