IOF-Amgen Health Professionals Awareness Grants
While awareness of osteoporosis among the public and health professionals is growing, there is still work to be done to ensure that doctors and other health professionals are adequately prepared to advise patients on the best possible care for osteoporosis. The IOF-Amgen Health Professional Grants – in 2009 five grants of US$10,000 each - will support innovative and cost effective projects by IOF member societies. The projects should be directed at health professionals and aim to inform why osteoporosis is so important, explain diagnostic and treatment options and develop innovative and east-to-use tools to raise awareness among doctors.
2009 IOF-Amgen Health Professionals Awareness Grants
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| From left: IOF Board member Professor Ego Seeman, Louisa Zhang (Singapore), Gabriele Suppan (Austria), Klara Zalatnai (Hungary), Mary Uhlenhopp (AMGEN), Roussanka Kovatcheva (Bulgaria), Anna-Maria Borissova (Bulgaria), Norma Piggott (AMGEN) |
Congratulations to the five 2009 winners, announced on September 24, 2009 at the IOF Worldwide Conference of Osteoporosis Patient Societies. A brief overview of the winning projects is provided below:
Armenian Osteoporosis Association
The project seeks to raise awareness and educate the population of Armenia about osteoporosis, its prevention and treatment as well as to increase attention to osteoporosis and discuss diagnostic and treatment options with doctors in Armenia. The campaign will include a telephone hotline, seminars and training for doctors, patients and medical students, osteoporosis ‘school’, publications, TV programs and public announcements broadcasted all over Armenia.
Aktion Gesunde Knochen – Action for Healthy Bones (Austria)
Research shows that in Austria a general practitioner takes just six minutes on average per patient. The person who communicates with osteoporosis patients is the assistant. But there is no education about osteoporosis provided by the Public Health System. These courses provide efficient further education of nurses and GP assistants regarding an effective osteoporosis management of patients. The aim is to raise awareness and communication skills of participants and thereby to improve the adherence of osteoporosis patients to prescribed treatment.
Bulgarian League for the Prevention of Osteoporosis (BLPO)
The Program stresses the ability to find high risk osteoporosis patients needing treatment by engaging the health care professionals in a role-playing lesson as potential patients.
Monthly one-day courses will be organized with 10 to 12 participants each, covering the following topics:
1. Causes and risk factors for osteoporosis discussed individually with each participant in a “history-taking” dialogue.
2.Nutrition and physical exercise – participant’s dietary habits and exercise activity will be analyzed in the context of her/his occupation. Practical steps for improvement in the context of osteoporosis prevention and/or treatment will be pointed out.
3.Screen patients subject to DXA and treatment using on-line FRAX program.
The course will end with a test to assess the knowledge and skills of the participants for work with patients and the FRAX program and free of charge hip DXA will be done to each participant.
Hungarian Osteoporosis Patient Association (HOPA)
HOPA’s project is to make a videoclip, and distribute CDs of an entertaining ‘role play’ that has proven very successful at a previous osteoporosis patient forum. The role play was originally performed at one of HOPA’s Osteoporosis Patient Forums by two women doctors with contributions from a dietetician, phsiotherapeutist, etc. The information provided was easy to understand. Case studies and questions raised by the patients were put into dialogs, which were taken from real life mixed with a lot of humor. The feedback was great, the patients themselves said that they were able to learn much more than through traditional presentations. HOPA hopes this will become a key resource for both patients and health professionals to provide patient centred-healthcare.
Osteoporosis Society Singapore
The Osteoporosis Society Singapore has developed a program that will focus on raising the level of awareness and interest in osteoporosis amongst Singapore allied health professionals, including nurses, dieticians, physiotherapists and pharmacists. The aim is to bridge the gap in their knowledge and understanding of the disease, to enable them to identify individuals at risk of osteoporosis, to equip them with the skills to educate to prevent osteoporosis, as well as to assist in the effective overall management of the disease. In turn, those allied professionals who are trained will become trainers, to help educate their colleagues.
