News Release

IOF launches educational slide kit to enhance understanding of FRAX

Business Announcement

International Osteoporosis Foundation

A concise yet comprehensive new teaching aid, the FRAX® Slide-kit, has been launched by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) in cooperation with the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Metabolic Bone Diseases, University of Sheffield, UK. The educational slides can be downloaded free of charge from the IOF website at http://www.iofbonehealth.org/health-professionals/frax.html

The FRAX® Slide-kit is intended as a teaching aid for healthcare professionals who want to enhance understanding of the WHO Fracture Risk Assessment tool (FRAX®) among their peers. It contains the most relevant information and visual aids as well as separate annotations which convey key messages for speakers and an up-to-date list of references for further reading. The slides can be easily extracted for flexible use in separate presentations.

FRAX® is a simple web-based tool that integrates clinical information in a quantitative manner to predict a 10-year probability of major osteoporotic fracture for both women and men in different countries. The FRAX® calculation algorithm is derived from a series of meta-analyses using the primary data from population-based cohorts that have identified several clinical risk factors for fracture. At a primary health care level, FRAX® will assist clinicians to better target women and men in need of intervention, thus contributing to a better allocation of healthcare resources towards patients most likely to benefit from treatment. This practical online tool, currently available for 12 countries, can be accessed free of charge at http://www.shef.ac.uk/FRAX/.

Through the broad dissemination of the new slide kit, IOF hopes to contribute towards the improved understanding of FRAX® among health care professionals worldwide.

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Acknowledgement: IOF extends its thanks to the Invest in Your Bones corporate partners who funded the development and dissemination of the FRAX® Slide-kit through an unrestricted educational grant.

About IOF

The International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) is a not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization dedicated to the worldwide fight against osteoporosis, the disease known as "the silent epidemic". IOF's members - scientific researchers, patient, medical and research societies and industry representatives from around the world - share a common vision of a world without osteoporotic fractures. IOF, with headquarters in Switzerland, currently includes 191 member societies in 91 countries, regions and territories. The Foundation works with its members to advance the understanding of osteoporosis and to promote prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease worldwide. Among its numerous programs and activities, IOF mobilizes the global osteoporosis movement on World Osteoporosis Day every year and organizes the IOF World Congress on Osteoporosis and the IOF World Wide Conference of Osteoporosis Patient Societies every two years.

For more information about IOF visit www.iofbonehealth.org

About FRAX®

The ultimate aim of the clinician in the management of osteoporosis should be to reduce the risk of fractures. Treatment decisions must be made through good clinical judgement and through improved identification of patients at high risk. FRAX® is a simple web-tool that integrates clinical information in a quantitative manner to predict a 10-year probability of major osteoporotic fracture for both women and men in different countries. Developed at the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Metabolic Bone Diseases, University of Sheffield, UK, the tool assists primary health care providers to better target people in need of intervention, improving the allocation of healthcare resources towards patients most likely to benefit from treatment. The tool can be accessed free of charge at http://www.shef.ac.uk/FRAX/ .


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