Private hospital becomes the first in Denmark to offer osteoporosis assessments using Sectra technology

Denmark’s Nørmark Private Hospital, located outside Copenhagen, will become the first clinic in the country to offer osteoporosis assessments to identify patients requiring further examination. The initiative facilitates a reduction in the number of fractures caused by osteoporosis, which in turn will improve the individual’s quality of life, reduce unnecessary suffering and create major savings for healthcare. The assessment of bone health is made possible by Sectra’s patented online service, Sectra OneScreen. 

“The early identification of patients at risk of osteoporosis is extremely important since there are actually inexpensive, effective methods of treating the disease, provided it is detected early on,” says Finn Nørmark, President of  Nørmark hospital. “Thanks to this initiative, we will be able to identify people with a high risk of osteoporosis-related fractures and help them receive the care they require, including examination and treatment, thereby avoiding many serious, painful fractures.”

Sectra’s method allows patients to be examined for osteoporosis using a standard X-ray image of the hand. These images can easily be taken in conjunction with breast images in a mammography examination using the same radiology equipment. The images can also be taken using other radiology equipment, which is an advantage since it means that there is no need for new hardware.

Osteoporosis mainly afflicts women, particularly after menopause, and causes extreme discomfort and, in the worst cases, severe bone fractures, long-term disability and diseases. Sectra’s service provides a cost-efficient osteoporosis screening tool for patients requiring further examination.

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 Finland, Spain, Germany, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, France, the UK and the US provide Sectra OneScreen in conjunction with mammography examinations.

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 http://www.iofbonehealth.org/

For further information, please contact:
Dr. Torbjörn Kronander, CEO and President, Sectra  AB, 46 (0) 705 23 52 27
Simo, Executive Vice President, Sectra AB, 46 (0) 703 51 53 03
Pictures: http://flickr.com/photos/sectramedicalsystems
Press room: www.sectra.com/medical/press

About Sectra
Sectra was founded in 1978 and has its roots in Linköping University in Sweden. The company’s business operation includes cutting-edge products and services within the niche segments of medical systems and secure communication systems. Sectra has offices in 12 countries and operates through partners worldwide. Sales in the 2012/2013 fiscal year totaled SEK 817 million. The Sectra share is quoted on the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm AB exchange. For more information, visit www.sectra.com 

In the medical market, Sectra develops and sells IT systems and services for radiology and other image-intensive departments, orthopaedics and rheumatology. More than 1,400 hospitals, clinics and imaging centers worldwide use the systems daily, together performing over 70 million radiology examinations annually. This makes Sectra one of the world-leading companies within systems for handling digital radiology images. In Scandinavia, Sectra is the market leader with more than 50% of all film-free installations. Sectra’s systems have been installed in North America, Scandinavia and most major countries in Europe and the Far East.

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