Women in Finland to benefit from early detection of osteoporosis

Public mammography screening provider in Finland mobilizes against osteoporosis

The Finnish mammography provider Suomen Radiologikeskus Oy has signed an agreement with the IT and medical technology company Sectra (STO: SECT B) to provide osteoporosis assessment in conjunction with public mammography screening in all of Keskus’ nine mammography centers in Finland. Women can choose to have their bone health examined at the same time as having their regular mammogram, thus enabling the early detection of osteoporosis and reducing the risk of future fractures. 

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 assessment of bone health is made possible by Sectra’s patented online service, Sectra OneScreen.

 “Through this commitment, we will extend our preventive health offering to the Finnish population and enable Finnish women to take responsibility for their own bone health,” says Jari Juola, CEO at Suomen Radiologikeskus Oy

By offering early detection of osteoporosis, Suomen Radiologikeskus will take more comprehensive responsibility for diagnosing severe diseases in women, while at the same time increasing profitability in diagnostic imaging with high utilization of their mammography equipment in a rapid workflow. Suomen Radiologikeskus will offer osteoporosis assessment to 60,000 women participating in the public mammography screening program in Finland.

Preventive osteoporosis care will result in large savings for society by preventing osteoporosis-related fractures rather than treating the fractures that have already occurred.

Sectra OneScreen will be demonstrated in Sectra’s booth 411 at ECR in Vienna.

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, 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.

Tags: