Winners of the 2007 IOF-AMGEN Health Professionals Awareness Grants

The five winning societies which were presented the 2007 IOF-AMGEN Health Professionals Awareness Grants are:

France: Groupe de Recherche et d'Informations sur les Ostéoporoses (GRIO)

Prof. Thierry Thomas of GRIO

Summary of winning project:

OSTEOPORAMA was developed in December 2005 in order to facilitate and encourage medical presentations by offering “ready made” slide presentations in the field of osteoporosis. The entire spectrum of osteoporosis was developed: i.e. bone physiology, bone measurement, epidemiology, pathology, treatments. Slides can be freely accessed on the GRIO website and downloaded. GRIO is to continue this OSTEOPORAMA project for another years by encouraging regular use among health care professionals, including upgrades and improvements as necessary2007 IOF-AMGEN Health Professionals Awareness Grants

Hong Kong, China: Hong Kong Osteoporosis Foundation (HKOF)

From left: HKOF Honorary President Prof. PC Leung; HKOF Honorary Secretary Mr. Anthony Kwok; HKOF President Dr. KH Mak

Summary of winning project:
Through a train-the-trainer programme, 60 medical, nursing or allied health professional students are trained to become Osteoporosis Educators. On completion of the course, the osteoporosis educators teach the school children how to prevent osteoporosis. The Project will raise awareness and knowledge of the medical, nursing and allied health professional students and the development the team work among the three professions in beating osteoporosis. The project may also foster the interest in future research and study advancement in among these students. The school children who have received the osteoporosis education will be encourage to start and maintain a bone healthy lifestyle throughout their lives, and may be a cost effective way to minimize future effects.

Italy: Lega Italiana Osteoporosi (LIOS)

Dr. Maria Luisa Bianchi, President of LIOS with LIOS volunteer, Maria Mercurio.

Summary of winning project:
This educational campaign focuses on bone health and osteoporosis prevention information targeted at professional midwives. The aim is to increase their awareness of osteoporosis and encourage them to introduce this topic in childbirth preparation courses. Specially developed educational material will be downloadable from the LIOS website, and includes a handbook on osteoporosis for midwives; a powerpoint presentation for childbirth preparation courses; and an educational booklet for pregnant women. The project will be launched with a 1-day course, free of charge, for professional midwives, with lectures by osteoporosis experts. A feed back survey will be carried out among the participating midwives after 12 months to assess the impact.

USA: National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF)

Leo Schargorodski, executive director and CEO of the National Osteoporosis Foundation USA (center) represented one of the five winning societies that were awarded the 2007 IOF-AMGEN Health Professionals Awareness Grants in Miami. The awards were presented by Prof. Cyrus Cooper, chair of IOF's CCA (left) and by Neil Hughes of AMGEN

Summary of winning project:
In May 2007, as part of the "Osteoporosis. It’s Beatable. It’s Treatable." campaign, NOF developed the Bone Tool Kit. Funding received only allowed for 2,000 of these kits to be printed. In an effort to expand its educational efforts for health professionals, NOF will produce 10,000 Bone Tool Kit CDs for distribution in 2008. Health professionals will be able to print out educational materials specific for their patient’s age and/or ethnicity, directly from the CD. NOF will target the following professional audiences – family physicians, clinical densitometrists, orthopedic surgeons, nurse practitioners as well as other specialty groups interested in the disease.

Dr. David Martin of SOVEMO with award certificate

Venezuela: Sociedad Venezolana de Menopausia y Osteoporosis (SOVEMO)

Summary of winning project:
Venezuela wished to implement “Quality Circles”, based on a program first developed as Quality Circles Canada, designed to improve the diagnostic and management of osteoporosis by the primary care physician. The project is an integrated disease management project to improve physician’s understanding and compliance with Osteoporosis Canada’s clinical practice guidelines, to recognize fracture as a risk factor and thus reduce the incidence, reduce morbidity and mortality, and the costs resulting from these consequences of osteoporosis.