News Release

Hans Peter Dimai named winner of 2018 IOF President's Award

The prestigious International Osteoporosis Foundation award is presented to the esteemed Austrian expert and longstanding member of the IOF Committee of Scientific Advisors in recognition of his achievements and dedicated support of IOF programs

Grant and Award Announcement

International Osteoporosis Foundation

Hans Peter Dimai, Professor of Medicine and Endocrinology at the Medical University of Graz, Austria, has been named the winner of the prestigious IOF President's Award.

The Award was presented by IOF President Cyrus Cooper at the opening of the World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases. Professor Cooper stated: "We are very pleased to present this Award to Hans Peter Dimai, a distinguished leader in the osteoporosis and bone field who has made longstanding contributions to IOF and IOF's international programmes, most notably the IOF-ISCD Osteoporosis Essentials training course. As a member of IOF's scientific committee and through his dedication to advancing healthcare professional education within Austria and in the German-speaking countries, he has contributed significantly to the IOF mission to foster education and training in the musculoskeletal field."

Hans Peter Dimai is Professor of Medicine and Endocrinology at the Medical University of Graz, Austria, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism. Following medical school in Austria and a 3-year internship at the University Hospital of Graz, he also attended the Vienna University of Economics and Business where he received a degree in Hospital Management. In 1995, he received the prestigious Erwin Schrödinger Scholarship which gave him the opportunity to deepen his knowledge and skills in biomedical research at the Loma Linda University and Jerry L. Pettis Memorial VA Medical Center in California. During this time, he was involved in numerous bone specific research projects, most of which focused on the evaluation of genetically determined differences in the phenotype, such as osteoclast precursors, in two inbred strains of mice who differed substantially in their bone mineral density and their bone volume. Upon his return to Austria, he received his specialist degrees and, in 2000, his Professorship.

As an elected member of the IOF Committee of Scientific Advisors, Prof. Dimai has been actively involved in numerous IOF activities. In 2003 he organized and ran the first IOF/ISCD International Bone Densitometry Certificate Course in Austria, with many other courses following since. Today, Prof. Dimai is part of the international speaker's faculty of the Osteoporosis Essentials Course which is organized worldwide by IOF and ISCD. In addition, he is a Member of the European, Middle Eastern and African Regional Panel of the International Society of Clinical Densitometry (ISCD). Prof. Dimai is on the Editorial Board of Osteoporosis International and Archives in Osteoporosis, among other journals dedicated to bone and mineral metabolism. He is also Section Editor of the journal Safety in Health. Since 2008, he has been Austrian delegate to, and active member of, the DVO, the umbrella society of German speaking osteologic societies. In addition, he has been the Austrian representative in the DVO's osteoporosis guidelines development group as well as a leading member of the osteoporosis guidelines group of the Main Association of Austrian Social Security Institutions since 2005.

From 2012 to 2016, Prof. Dimai held the position of the Vice Rector for Studies and Teaching at the Medical University of Graz. As well as establishing a uniform medical school admission test to these universities, he led the establishment of a fourth public medical university in Austria, for which, in 2016, he was awarded one of Austria's highest and most prestigious governmental decorations: the Golden Medal of Merits of Upper Austria. Prof. Dimai is former president of the Austrian Society of Bone and Mineral Research, and former congress president of "Osteologie 2016", the largest annual congress in the German speaking countries related to the bone field. He has authored more than 300 publications, many of them published in highly ranked journals including the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). His main areas of interest include metabolic bone diseases, particularly osteoporosis and its epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment and economic impact. Currently, he is clinical consortium partner of PoCOsteo (Point-of-care in-office device for identifying individuals at high risk of Osteoporosis and Osteoporotic Fracture), an EU funded HORIZON 2020 project which is supported by IOF.

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World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis & Musculoskeletal Diseases (WCO-IOF-ESCEO Kraków 2018)

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

About IOF

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

About ESCEO

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


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