Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Navigating the Course for Osteoporosis Care

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As advances in the treatment and diagnosis of osteoporosis help improve the quality of life for patients, federal cuts are simultaneously jeopardizing patients’ access to an incredibly valuable screening test for the disease. This topic will be discussed at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) 17^th Annual Meeting & Clinical Congress, at 8:15 a.m. Friday, May 16, 2008, at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort in Orlando.

“2008 is a keystone year for osteoporosis care,” AACE member Nelson B. Watts, MD, FACP, MACE said. “New advances in medical science and guidelines will allow physicians to identify and treat patients more effectively.”

Advances include the approval of a medication last August, that when administered intravenously, will only need to be taken once a year to treat osteoporosis.

“This is especially exciting because compliance is one of the most difficult hurdles to clear in the treatment of patients,” Watts said. “This medication can potentially bypass that obstacle.”

Another central focus for Dr. Watts’ session will be the “Clinician’s Guide to Prevention and Treatment of Osteoporosis,” recently published by the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF). Dr. Watts’ discussion will highlight how the new NOF guidelines:

• Offer insight for the first time into the diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis in men over age 50.
• Identify other risk factors of osteoporosis in women to include African-American, Asian, Latina and other postmenopausal women.
• Apply the recently released algorithm on absolute fracture risk called FRAX® by the World Health Organization (WHO) Calculator, which helps to estimate the likelihood of a person to break a bone due to low bone mass or osteoporosis over a period of 10 years.

As these advancements break new ground in Osteoporosis care, Medicare cuts threaten to interrupt patient access to the dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) procedure, a tool considered the “gold standard” for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis.

With these cuts taking effect, the DXA screening test, which helps identify those at high fracture risk and require medical therapy, will begin to disappear from physicians’ offices because reimbursement is far below the cost to perform the procedure.

“This is a real crisis since two-thirds of DXA procedures are currently performed in physician offices,” Watts said.

Dr. Watts will present this material during the Seventeenth Annual Meeting & Clinical Congress at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort in Orlando, Florida on Friday, May 16^th.

Media Registration: (http://www.aace.com/meetings/ams/2008/MRGuidelines.php)

About AACE: (http://www.aace.com/org/history.php)

About the AACE Annual Meeting: (http://www.aace.com/meetings/ams/2008/regandprog.php)