Osteoporosis
NOFSA 2024 Masterclass: Fracture liaison services – Building stronger pathways for quality osteoporosis care
Osteoporosis, often called the “silent disease,” causes bones to become porous and weak, yet 80% of patients remain undiagnosed and untreated even after a fracture. Globally, one in three women and one in five men over 50 experience osteoporosis-related fractures, most commonly of the hip, spine, and wrist. A healthy lifestyle and pharmacological treatments can significantly reduce fracture risk.
This sixth and final module of the 2024 NOFSA Masterclass, in collaboration with OF Capture the Fracture, highlights global and local strategies for effective fracture liaison services (FLSs) in managing fragility fractures.
You will learn about:
- Factors that increase the risk for osteoporosis-related fracture
- How a fracture liaison service (FLS) approach optimises osteoporosis care
- How to facilitate the successful implementation of a FLS
- The challenges to improving fragility fracture and osteoporosis care in Africa
- Lessons learned in establishing a FLS pilot in South African clinical practice.
Professor Willem F Lems
Educational Officer, Amsterdam Rheumatology & Immunology Center; Chair, Capture the Fracture® Educational Subgroup; The Netherlands
Professor Willem F Lems has been a Rheumatologist since 1993, and Professor of Rheumatology since 2008, particularly in “Metabolic Changes in Patients with Rheumatic Diseases” at the Amsterdam UMC in the Netherlands and he is the current Educational Officer of the Amsterdam Rheumatology and Immunology Center.
He is a member of the Capture the Fracture® Governance and lead of its Education Operational Subgroup. Professor Lems has published extensively, with around 475 PubMed publications to date.
Dr Isabel Marion Thompson
General Practitioner, The Quadrangle Netcare Park Lane Hospital, Johannesburg
Dr Isabel Marion Thompson is a General Practitioner with over 25 years of experience serving the Johannesburg community. She completed her medical training at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and has since dedicated her career to providing compassionate and comprehensive care.
In recent years, Dr Thompson has developed a specialised interest in geriatric medicine, with a focus on osteoporosis, and has been actively engaged in advancing her expertise in this field since 2018.
