Video : Dr Clint Rubin explaining low intensity vibration

Dr Clint Rubin explaining low intensity vibration and the Marodyne LIV Therapy tablet.

More information:

• Information on LIV Therapy (Low Intensity Vibration) and its benefits.

IBMS BoneKEy Webinar – last chance to register

The Management of Bone Fragility/Low Bone Mass in Children and Adolescents. Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 from 12:00 noon to 1 PM Eastern (U.S.) Daylight Time (5 pm-6 pm UK time zone/6 pm-7 pm Central European time zone).

The IBMS BoneKEy Webinar is a free, live, online web conference where a hot topic is presented by an expert in the field and a discussion by panelists follows. The expert for tomorrow’s webinar is Catherine M. Gordon, M.D. from the Children’s Hospital Boston, MA.

There will be a 20 minute online presentation which will discuss:

• Identifying risk factors for a low bone density among children and adolescents
• Measurement tools that are available to evaluate bone health in a pediatric population
• Management strategies for the care of those children identified to have a low bone mass and/or skeletal fragility

To register, visit the webinar registration page.

More information:

• More information about the webinar and how to register

Keywords: IBMS BoneKEy, low bone mass, skeletal fragility, low bone density, bone health

Dr Clint Rubin at the University Medical Innovation Showcase

Dr Clint Rubin is due to give a talk at the Medical Device and Manufacturing Showcase in New York, tomorrow 7th June.

The talk is entitled, ‘Engineering an Intervention for Osteoporosis and Obesity through the Mechanical Regulation of Adult Stem Cells‘ and starts at 11:40 am at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

He discusses the findings that low intensity vibration can help in the treatment of obesity in adolescents and osteoporosis in the elderly.

More information:

• For more information on osteoporosis, see our osteoporosis education section.
• Full talk information at the Medical Device and Manufacturing Showcase website

Keywords: osteoporosis, obesity, low intensity vibration

New Updated WHO Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX) Now Available

The World Health Organization (WHO) have released the latest version of their Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX).

The FRAX® tool, available free from the University of Sheffield website, has been developed by WHO to evaluate fracture risk of patients.  The FRAX® models have been developed from studying data from Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.

The FRAX tool gives the 10-year probability of fracture based on a number of factors which are input into the calculation. The output is a 10-year probability of hip fracture and the 10-year probability of a major osteoporotic fracture (clinical spine, forearm, hip or shoulder fracture).

The tool also has a handy converter for pound to kg and inches to cm calculations which help with the completion of the form.

In this update four new countries have been added ( Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Tunisia) to its already global spread.  In addition, the tool already covers most countries in Western Europe as well as the US and Canada.  In conjunction with this the FRAX tool is also available in 16 languages.

Also available is a counter  of the number of individual calculations of fracture risk already carried out.  Since April 2008 the FRAX website has been used to calculate the fracture risk of approximately 6 million individuals worldwide.

The counter has been reset at the new re-launch and each country has its own tally. In the two days since launch the website has already seen 7157 assessments from the US alone.

More information:

• For more information on osteoporosis, see our osteoporosis education section.
• WHO Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX).

Keywords: Fracture Risk Assessment, hip fracture, osteoporotic fracture, FRAX, osteoporosis, WHO

LIV Therapy Awarded Bioscience Catalyst Grant

A recent article in the Long Island Business News has reported on the new Bioscience Technology Commercialization Fund from Stony Brook University. This fund has allocated grants from $25,000 to $100,000 to projects involving musculoskeletal diseases, metabolic and cognitive disorders, cancer, burn injuries, inflammatory diseases and other medical conditions.

The money is meant to be “a catalyst to ensuring that groundbreaking biomedical research taking place at Stony Brook University advances with the ultimate goal to reach patients with better diagnostics and therapeutics.”

A recipient of one of these grants is Clint Rubin, Chief Scientific Officer of Marodyne Medical, in order to research into developing low intensity vibrations or LIV therapy.

Marodyne Medical already is developing the technology to treat osteoporosis, according to the school. Rubin’s research into “LIV therapy” focuses on using it to treat diabetes, bone marrow disorders and cognitive dysfunction. Low intensity vibrations cause small, muscle contractions that can strengthen muscles and bones, according to the school.

More information:

• Read the full article on  Long Island Business News - Stony Brook bioscience projects net $500K
• More information on LIV Therapy (Low Intensity Vibration) and its benefits

Osteoporosis drug stimulates bone but does not lower fracture risk

A new article on endocrineweb.com has reported a study by the Japanese that has found that the new osteoporosis drug bazedoxifene stimulates bone turnover but does not decrease fracture risk in postmenopausal women.
In fact, researchers found that bazedoxifene did not significantly prevent broken bones of any kind, compared to a placebo.

The report, which appears in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research (JBMR), found that daily doses of the medication increased participants’ lumbar bone mineral density (BMD) by up to 2.74 percent over a two-year period.

Fractures are one of the most common causes of disability among aging Americans. The National Osteoporosis Foundation estimates that in the U.S. alone, osteoporosis contributes to more than 2 million fractures each year.

More information:

• For more information on osteoporosis, see our osteoporosis education section.
• The full article on the osteoporosis drug trial.

Keywords: bazedoxifene, bone density, osteoporosis, endocrineweb, National Osteoporosis Foundation

National Osteoporosis Awareness & Prevention Month: Get Your Online Toolkit

This May is the National Osteoporosis Foundation Awareness and Prevention month.  In order to raise awareness of this disease, which affects over 10 million Americans, the NOF have launched an Online Toolkit.

The toolkit contains materials which you can use in displays at work or in your community which can help spread awareness and information about how osteoporosis can be prevented.

The kit includes:

• Poster (11” x 17”)
• Two Patient Fact Sheets
• Osteoporosis Tear and Share Bookmarks
• NOF Press Release
• Press Release Template

For more information, visit the National Osteoporosis Foundation Awareness and Prevention Online Toolkit web page.

And even more information on osteoporosis, see our osteoporosis education section.

Keywords:  National Osteoporosis Foundation, osteoporosis awareness and prevention