Today, at the opening of the European Congress on Osteoporosis & Osteoarthritis in Valencia, Spain, Professor John A. Kanis was awarded the 2nd ESCEO-IOF Servier Pierre D. Delmas Prize.
The prestigious award, granted by the European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (ESCEO) and the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) with the support of Servier, honours an individual who has made outstanding and major scientific contributions to the study of bone and mineral diseases. Consisting of a grant of €40,000 and an honorary medal, the award is named after the late Pierre Delmas, Professor of Medicine and Rheumatology at the University of Lyon, France, and Director of the INSERM research unit 'Pathophysiology of Osteoporosis'. Professor Delmas was an outstanding scientist who directed essential basic and clinical research in metabolic bone diseases. He was one of the leading proponents of osteoporosis advocacy worldwide in his role as IOF President.
Prof. John A. Kanis is currently the Emeritus Professor in Human Metabolism and Clinical Biochemistry and the Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Metabolic Bone Diseases, University in Sheffield, UK. Prof. Kanis' research interests are largely related to disorders of skeletal metabolism including osteoporosis, Paget's disease of bone, hyperparathyroidism, renal osteodystrophy and neoplasia affecting the skeleton. He has also made a number of national and international contributions to guideline development, health technology assessment, epidemiology and health economics. Prof. Kanis is President of the International Osteoporosis Foundation and WHO Advisor on Osteoporosis, among other honorary positions. He is Co Editor-in-Chief of Osteoporosis International, serves on the editorial board of several journals and is the author of more than 800 papers, chapters and books on bone disease and metabolism. His current major interest is in the development of risk assessment algorithms and the formulation of practice guidelines in many regions of the world. Professor Kanis has received numerous honours and awards, most recently the Hamdan Award for Medical Research Excellence in 2010.
The Pierre Delmas Prize is awarded annually by a prize Committee composed of leading scientists chosen within the IOF Committee of Scientific Advisors and ESCEO Scientific Advisory Board. The next Pierre Delmas Prize will be awarded in March 2012 at the European Congress on Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (IOF-ECCEO12) to take place in Bordeaux, France.
About ESCEO
The European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (ESCEO) is a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering 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. http://www.esceo.org
About IOF
The International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) is a non-profit, nongovernmental organization dedicated to the worldwide fight against osteoporosis, the disease known as "the silent epidemic". IOF's members – committees of 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 now represents 196 societies in 92 locations around the world. http://www.iofbonehealth.org