New tool measures 10-year fracture risk

Primary care physicians have a powerful new tool for identifying patients who are at high risk fracture and would benefit from bone-strengthening treatments. The World Health Organization published a report that outlines a refined algorithm for predicting which patients would most benefit from the growing array of osteoporosis treatments and launched an interactive web-based tool that will allow primary care physicians around the world to apply the formula to a patient within minutes. Although a growing number of therapies have been developed to treat bone loss in hope of preventing such fractures, clinicians have needed more precise ways to determine who would most benefit from such treatments. The report and accompanying online tool aim to fill this gap.