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CME: Therapeutic Updates, Best Practices, and Barriers to Care in the Prevention and Treatment of Osteoporosis

ACCREDITATION EXPIRED: March 03, 2015

Activity Description / Statement of Need:

Osteoporosis is a disease common among elderly patients that is increasing in frequency as senior citizens begin to represent a larger share of the U.S. population.  Osteoporosis increases the risk of severe fracture, which, in turn, is associated with a higher risk of mortality.  A variety of literature has demonstrated that antiresorptive therapy is effective at reducing the progression of disease and preventing fracture; however, recent studies have demonstrated that these therapies have a variety of adverse effects, some of which – like mandibular and maxillary osteonecrosis – are severe and were unrecognized at the time of their initial F.D.A approval. 

 

While osteoporosis was traditionally thought of as a disease of postmenopausal women, the patient population has expanded to elderly men.  Considerations also naturally extend to patients with other chronic predispositions to weakened bones, such as long-term corticosteroid treatment regimens.  This wide array of different patient populations and treatment choices may present a clinical conundrum in which the optimal path to successful treatment remains unclear to clinicians.  Indeed, the literature suggests that there is a gap between the actual and optimal treatment of patients with osteoporosis.

 

The literature suggests that: there are or may be emerging or existing patterns of ethnic, racial, and gender disparities in healthcare and treatment of patients with osteoporosis; race- and ethnicity-based discrimination within the healthcare environment are associated with disparities in care; and that such discrimination is associated with both worse chronic health condition control and a higher incidence catastrophic health events.

 

This online free CME program has been designed to bring healthcare professionals’ knowledge of the rationale behind prevention and treatment of osteoporosis in various populations up to date.  This program also attempts to examine the role of demographic-based barriers to care of patients with osteoporosis and strategies to minimize or alleviate those disparities.

 

Agenda

 

 

Introduction, Disclosures

Definitions and epidemiology of osteoporosis

•          Types of osteoporosis

•          Incidence and prevalence

•          Causes and risk factors

•          Patient cases

Diagnosis

•          General presentation, signs, and symptoms

•          Bone mineral density, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, T-scores, and bone metabolic biomarkers

•          Differential diagnosis: ruling out vitamin D deficiency and other endocrine and metabolic disorders

•          Patient cases

Treatment

•          Exercise, diet, and the role of vitamins

•          Smoking cessation and limitation of alcohol consumption

•          Pharmacotherapy

•          Patient cases

Challenges to diagnosis and treatment

•          Demographic barriers

•          Underdiagnosis

•          Patients who go un treated post-hip fracture

•          Treatment adherence

•          Patient education

•          Patient cases

Summary, conclusions, and best practice recap

Target Audience:

Healthcare professionals specializing in endocrinology, family medicine, geriatrics, internal medicine, orthopedic surgery, pathology, preventive medicine, primary care, public health, women’s health, or those who otherwise commonly care for patients with osteoporosis.

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Commercial Support Disclosure: This program is supported by  educational grants from AMGEN.

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Release Date: March 03, 2013 -- Expiration Date: March 03, 2015

Faculty: Andrea Traina, PharmD, BCPS, BCACP

Agenda

Learning Objectives

Accreditation

Faculty Disclosure and Resolution of COI

Instructions

System Requirements