16th Annual Conference on Osteoporosis: Diagnosis, Management and Prevention

“It was the best of times…It was the worst of times,…It was the age of wisdom…It was the age of foolishness…” The first few lines of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, aptly describe the present situation with osteoporosis. We know how to diagnose osteoporosis, who, and how to screen, who and how to treat; we have medications that effectively reduce the risk of fractures and yet most patients with osteoporosis are neither diagnosed nor treated, even after a fracture occurs. To make matters worse, recent reports about possible rare complications of long-term unmonitored therapy have further discouraged clinicians from managing osteoporosis and led many patients to discontinue their medication.

About 50% of women and 30% of men over the age of 50 years have osteoporosis. It is not possible for the care of these patients to be relegated to specialists. Primary care providers should feel comfortable screening, diagnosing and treating patients with osteoporosis. The main goal of this conference is to provide primary care providers with an update on recent developments in the diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis, increase their level of comfort managing patients with osteoporosis and know when to refer a patient for specialist’s care.