News and press releases

Prominent mammography provider in Germany joins fight against osteoporosis

January 28, 2013 - Medical Systems

The German mammography provider Radiologie Hofheim is the first clinic in the national mammography screening program in Germany to offer women the opportunity of a health control with osteoporosis detection. The assessment of bone health is made possible by Sectra’s patented online service, Sectra OneScreen (Link).

Post-menopausal women comprise a risk group for osteoporosis, one of the most painful and costly diseases in the world. In severe cases, osteoporosis can cause fractures which, in turn, can cause great suffering and, at worst, death.

“The ability to conduct a health control to identify osteoporosis means that many women can avoid unnecessary suffering. Offering this examination to women participating in the national screening program increases our service level and it may also result in major cost savings for society,” says Dr Andreas Korff at Hofheim.

With Sectra’s service, patients at high risk of fracture can be identified and treatment can be initiated. Additionally, Sectra’s service helps clinics identify women who should have their bone mineral density (BMD) further investigated using a DXA scanner.

About Sectra OneScreen

Osteoporosis is a heavily under-diagnosed disease and a simple method for identifying patients requiring treatment is needed. The Sectra OneScreen online service is a cost-efficient solution for identifying patients at risk of osteoporosis. The service is well suited to the mammography workflow. After the four breast images included in the mammography examination, an image of the hand is acquired using the same radiology equipment. Since the woman is already standing by the modality, this adds no more than 30 seconds to the examination time. With the standard X-ray image of the hand, the women’s bone health (Bone Mineral Density, BMD) is analyzed using Sectra’s online service.

Clinics in Germany, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, France and the UK have introduced Sectra OneScreen into their mammography programs.

Benefits women, mammography clinics and society

The benefits of using Sectra’s online service to identify patients at risk of osteoporosis include:

Allowing women to assess and take control of their bone health, thereby avoiding fractures and unnecessary suffering.
Identification of women at high risk of fractures, meaning that treatment or further investigation using DXA scanning can be initiated.
The woman only needs to visit once for two examinations.
Seamless integration into the regular mammography workflow. Possibility of combining two examinations in one visit, adding only 30 seconds per woman.
No radiologist time needed. The procedure is based on FDA and CE-approved automatic image analysis done “in the cloud” while preserving patient integrity.
No need for new hardware – no major initial investment. Can be used with all major digital mammography devices.
Improvement of the bottom line for clinics and hospitals by doing more on the same visit. Also generates new and more patients for existing DXA systems.
Reduction in healthcare costs for insurance companies and society.

About osteoporosis

Some 200 million people are estimated to suffer from osteoporosis.
The disease is caused by an imbalance in the remodeling of the skeleton, which in turn can be caused, for example, by an unhealthy lifestyle, genetic factors or drugs used to treat other diseases.
Nine million osteoporosis-related fractures, primarily radio carpal, hip and vertebra fractures occur annually.
Affects one in three women, and one in five men, over the age of 50.
One of the diseases that causes the highest economic burden for healthcare.

Source: International Osteoporosis Foundation www.iofbonehealth.org