How might we reimagine older adults’ care experience after breaking a bone due to osteoporosis to ensure their first fracture is their last?

Opportunity Areas are specific calls to action that guide our community. They serve as provocations that are intentionally aligned with our Challenge topic and partner priorities and ripe for innovation. Regardless of the Opportunity Area, the hope is that all ideas will approach the Challenge question through the lens of preventing fractures due to osteoporosis. This will encourage us to learn from outliers, and be critical about the ways in which our solutions can be applied to various populations and different persona communities. Paying attention to users outside the mainstream will help us uncover hidden insights and work-around solutions that will strengthen the broader bone health innovation system as a whole.

Best practices in medical publications show there are three key steps that can help ensure a patient’s first fracture due to osteoporosis is their last.

Identifying people at risk

How might we identify at risk individuals in the community or health system?

Osteoporosis is a silent disease: People can be unaware they have it because they don’t feel it. A fracture can be the first sign that something is wrong. Many older adults in the later years of their lives—when they are unable or choose not to work—can be without the resources or access to appropriate care, and instead suffer silently. We know older adults who have already had one fracture are at highest risk, but there are opportunities to improve how they are tracked and handed off between points of care, to coordinate the availability and distribution of risk information in the community so more of us are looking out for one another, and to meet folks where they are most often.

Investigating the cause and connecting dots

How might we inspire health providers, caregivers, or patients to investigate the cause of a fracture?

The primary way to figure out if someone has osteoporosis is with a DEXA scan, a diagnostic tool that measures bone density. It’s an assessment a doctor needs to decide to order, but the diagnosis and care of a fracture is a winding treatment path, and providers along the journey may not be aware of the fracture or connect it to osteoporosis. First-responders in emergency care are responsible for treating the break rather than the cause, and rarely have the time or resources to flag a need for further investigation. Care Coordinators in hospitals can help to connect a patient’s care, but they can be under-equipped or may not exist. Primary Care doctors may be unaware of a previous fracture, may suggest nutritional changes without educating the patient on their condition, or may fail to investigate the fracture cause because of competing health priorities. Older adults can be hesitant to explore their health for fear of what they may learn or because other health conditions compete for importance in patient and provider minds.

Intervening for prevention

How might we help older adults with Osteoporosis access intervention to prevent future fractures?

Navigating the healing process and the overwhelming and disjointed information—whether for a fracture patient, primary caregiver, care specialist or community worker—is not easy. Multiple pharmacological products exist today in addition to many other treatment options, such as diet and exercise, but aren’t integrated into treatment plans for a holistic approach that goes beyond fracture healing and fall prevention. How can existing treatment plans take a holistic approach to go beyond fracture healing and fall prevention? Let’s consider innovations that might leverage systems and resources, aggregating or increasing the trustworthiness of information so that it is useful, reliable, and easy to access for all players involved.

Other

Want to suggest ideas outside of our framework? Tell us how other ideas might achieve the impact we’re discussing, and how your approach works!