IOF CNS Medal awarded to professor Bagher Larijani

The CNS Medal honours an individual who has made important and outstanding contributions to the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) Committee of National Societies (CNS) through active participation in IOF activities and by expanding IOF's message and outreach at the national level.

The 2018 CNS Medal has been awarded today to Professor Bagher Larijani, at a ceremony held at the World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases in Kraków, Poland. Professor Larijani is founding Director-General and Chief Scientific Officer of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute (EMRI), a long-time, active CNS member society and the key Iranian organization in the field which carries out basic, clinical and translational research, healthcare professional education, and public awareness activities across the country.

In presenting the Award, CNS Chairman Professor Jean-Yves Reginster commended Professor Larijani and EMRI, an IOF member society. He stated: "It is a great honour to extend this prestigious Award to Professor Larijani, who is a distinguished and internationally recognized researcher as well as a dedicated advocate for osteoporosis patients in Iran. Thanks to his leadership, EMRI has carried out extensive educational outreach and national research, increased public and health professional knowledge of osteoporosis, and taken important steps forward in quantifying the burden of the disease in the country. We are also continually impressed with EMRI's exemplary campaigns on World Osteoporosis Day, which reinforce the outreach of IOF's key annual global awareness initiative."

Professor Bagher Larijani trained as an endocrinologist at Tehran University of Medical Sciences and obtained a fellowship distinction at the American College of Endocrinology. He is the founding Director-General and Chief Scientific Officer of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute (EMRI) and simultaneously holds several high-ranking governmental positions. He has served as the Chancellor of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, the oldest and most prestigious medical school in Iran, and has held the position of the Chairman of the Policy-making Council at the Ministry of Health and Medical Education. Besides his national-scale leadership roles, Professor Larijani, is currently also a practicing endocrinologist, has been involved in many research projects in different capacities, and has authored numerous journal articles and books in the fields of endocrinology, osteoporosis, medical ethics, and other related areas. His work has attained more than 16000 citations and the H-index of 62 recorded by Google Scholar in 2018.

Internationally, he has contributed to several global-scale research and policy-making conventions and assemblies such as Lancet Commission on Obesity and has been involved in different projects of the International Osteoporosis Foundation, World Health Organization and other global health-related organizations in different capacities. It is noteworthy that during the past two decades, his main interest at the Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute has been promoting translational medicine in Iran and bridging the gap between basic and clinical research in diabetes, osteoporosis, and other non-communicable diseases. Recently, in the capacity of Deputy Chair of the National Supreme Committee for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases, Professor Larijani has made significant contributions to the design and development of national-scale multi-sectoral policies aimed at controlling the rampant nation-wide increase in the burden of non-communicable diseases, predicted to affect the nation dramatically in the future.

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The CNS, comprising 240 patient and medical societies, is IOF's core membership committee. As a group it forms the world's largest single network of national patient and medical organizations dedicated to osteoporosis and musculoskeletal disorders. CNS societies are led by dedicated individuals who are deeply committed to raising public awareness and improving patient care at the national level. Their grassroots efforts in implementing IOF information campaigns locally have helped spread key prevention messages around the world. Contact an IOF member society

Held jointly by IOF and ESCEO, the Congress takes place in Kraków, Poland, from April 19-22, 2018. WCO-IOF-ESCEO is the world's largest annual forum for the presentation of clinical research and new advances in the prevention and management of musculoskeletal disorders, including sarcopenia and frailty. For complete information visit http://www.wco-iof-esceo.org #OsteoCongress

The International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) is the world's largest nongovernmental organization dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis and related musculoskeletal diseases. IOF members, including committees of scientific researchers as well as 240 patient, medical and research societies in 99 locations, work together to make fracture prevention and healthy mobility a worldwide heath care priority. http://www.iofbonehealth.org http://www.facebook.com/ @iofbonehealth

The European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases (ESCEO) is a non-profit organization, dedicated to a close interaction between clinical scientists dealing with rheumatic disorders, pharmaceutical industry developing new compounds in this field, regulators responsible for the registration of such drugs and health policy makers, to integrate the management of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis within the comprehensive perspective of health resources utilization. The objective of ESCEO is to provide practitioners with the latest clinical and economic information, allowing them to organize their daily practice, in an evidence-based medicine perspective, with a cost-conscious perception. http://www.esceo.org