Secondary Prevention Fragility Fracture

British Columbia, Canada

Sonia is a hospital-based family physician with advanced expertise in osteoporosis and fall prevention who lives and works in beautiful British Columbia (BC), Canada. She started the first Fracture Liaison Service (FLS) in BC at Peace Arch Hospital in 2015. She is currently the Osteoporosis Canada National FLS Implementation Lead and the co-chair of the FFN Secondary Fracture Prevention Special Interest Group.

Sonia is a clinical assistant professor in the Dept. of Family Practice, University of BC and an adjunct professor in the Dept of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. She is currently the lead investigator on a Health Research Policy Project funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research to develop policy to spread FLS across BC. She has been successful with research grant awards from both national and provincial research granting agencies in the area of falls and fracture prevention. She has been an early adopter of the concept of patient-oriented research and actively involves patients as partners in all of her research projects.

In 2015 she was awarded a Fraser Health Above and Beyond Award for Evidence Based Practice and in 2022 Osteoporosis Canada’s Community BackBone Award.

New Zealand

Kim trained as an Occupational Therapist in Canada in 1990 and has since moved to Nelson, New Zealand where she currently resides.  She has worked in Canada, England, and New Zealand in acute and rehabilitation wards, community, primary care, and private practice roles, giving her a broad base of experience.  Prior to commencing work in the Fracture Liaison Service (FLS) area she was involved with New Zealand regional and national falls prevention initiatives.  Her connection with FLS and osteoporosis management began in 2016, setting up and developing the region’s Capture the Fracture accredited FLS as part of a national approach to best practice FLS across New Zealand.  In addition to being an FLS Coordinator for Nelson Marlborough region, Kim is also the Lead of the Fracture Liaison Network of NZ (FLNNZ) to support advocacy, peer mentoring, and professional development for the FLS Coordinators and Clinical Leads around New Zealand.  She works closely with Osteoporosis New Zealand, the New Zealand Fragility Fracture Registry team, and Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) who support the ‘Live Stronger for Longer’ Falls and Fracture Prevention initiative.   She has been involved with the FFN SIG for Secondary Fragility Fracture Prevention since 2021 and recently became co-Lead of the group.

Australia

Robyn is a retired registered nurse who has worked across multiple settings within the public health system of NSW Australia, including acute, outpatient and community. She was accredited as a Nurse Practitioner in the final 10 years of her clinical practice. For the last 14 years of her career, Robyn worked in policy areas of the NSW Department of Health, overseeing chronic care activities in NSW, and latterly for 10 years at the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI). ACI is a support organisation of the NSW health system that works with clinical teams across the health system to determine better ways of providing care that is informed by the evidence but is applicable to local care settings. Her work at the ACI focused on musculoskeletal health care needs inclusive of developing, implementing and evaluating a model of care for people requiring Osteoporotic Refracture Prevention care – see https://aci.health.nsw.gov.au/resources/musculoskeletal/osteoporotic_refracture/orp At the outset of the work there were 4 FLSs in NSW – locally known as Osteoporotic Refracture Prevention (ORP) Services. Since 2017 the model of care has been included in health policy across NSW which means that all major hospitals in NSW have to provide an ORP service. Thus, ORP services are now available system-wide! The ongoing challenge is to consolidate these services with the aim of meeting the KPIs set by IOF, FFN and other international organisations – see https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00198-020-05377-1

Robyn is the past lead of the FFN Secondary Fragility Fracture Prevention Special Interest Group (SIG), now in 2024 is a member of the SIG Advisory Group.

Thailand

Wararat is a registered nurse who works at the Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Thailand. She works in an orthopaedic operative theatre and was an ortho OR manager during 2013-2015. She has served on the AO trauma regional faculty Asia-Pacific since 2000. Ms. Wararat has become a nurse coordinator of the Siriraj-Fracture Liaison Service (Si-FLS) since 2016 and engages in many important steps of the Si-FLS, including facilitating the interdisciplinary team rounds; coordinating information and care requirements with other health care providers; fostering peer support; and providing continuous education to the multidisciplinary team. Ms. Wararat is now a member of the Thai Orthopaedic nurse society and serves on the committee, Thailand Fracture liaison service nurse society and Board of Fragility Fracture Network-Thailand. She works as surveyor of Hospital accreditation Institute of Thailand since 2016 and has been a member of the working group for “Clinical practice guideline elderly hip fracture surgery development in Thailand” since 2020.

Australia

Tasha works as a Dietitian in Adelaide, South Australia, across subacute rehabilitation units and sites across tertiary hospitals and health networks. Her interest in bone health originated whilst studying her Master of Nutrition and Dietetics at Flinders University and has carried through in her work across SA Health, particularly with her contributions to the Southern Adelaide Fragility Fracture Service, which achieved gold standard for the IOF Capture the Fracture programme in 2022. She has a genuine interest in the management of osteopenia, osteoporosis, secondary fracture prevention, healthy ageing and advocating the key role nutrition plays in this. Another key interest area is Sarcopenia, of which she has completed research in, and appreciates the importance of bone and muscle health in frailty. Tasha has a passion for patient-centred care, developing engaging and innovative ways to involve patients in their own care, early intervention, and enjoys working within interdisciplinary models of care.

United Kingdom

Kassim is the Professor of Osteoporosis and Rare Bone Diseases, University of Oxford and an honorary consultant adult rheumatologist at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

He specializes in common and rare metabolic bone diseases. He is the clinical lead for Oxford Fracture Prevention Service, and the national Fracture Liaison Service Audit for England and Wales and serves on the Board of the Fragility Fracture Network. He also is the clinical lead for the Oxford Rare bone disease service for adults and Rare Disease Collaborative Network for Adult Rare Bone Diseases. His research interests include the epidemiology of musculoskeletal diseases with a focus on rare bone disorders and secondary fracture prevention.

Brazil

Juliana is a Professor at the Department of Physical Therapy, University of Brasília, Brazil.  She teaches and supervises internship in Physiotherapy in Primary Health Care and Older Adult’s Health. She is a member of the Brazilian and global committee on Rehabilitation and Secondary Prevention of Fractures of the Fragility Fracture Network (FFN). Director – treasurer of FFN Brazil (management 2023-2024). Member of the Latin America Research Network on Aging, Age Care Technologies International Research Group and the Brazilian Center for Health Studies. She coordinates the UnB Longevity Observatory. Her topics of interest include Healthy Aging; Falls, Fragility Fracture, Intrinsic Capacity and Quality of Life of older people; Integrated Health Care; Physiotherapy in Primary Health Care; Data Science, Health Information and Epidemiology; Technology and Innovation for health care and management.
IG: @jumartins.fisio.geronto

Netherlands

Peter van den Berg was born in and still resides in Delft, Netherlands. He started his nursing training at the St. Hippolytus Hospital Delft and after obtaining the diploma (1981), he further specialised as a nurse cast technician (Leiden University Hospital (1986)), obtained a nursing Management degree at the Leiden Hogeschool (2005) and finally the degree of Master of Advanced Nursing Practice (Leiden Hogeschool 2007). He is currently working as a coordinating nurse practitioner at the Fracture Liaison Service of the Reinier de Graaf Gasthuis, Delft.

In January 2014, he started his PhD project at the Maastricht University Medical Center, which resulted in a thesis defended in 2020.

Currently he is taking part in a Governmental multidisciplinary working group (Zorginstitiuut) regarding Dutch secondary fracture prevention and osteoporosis care and he is a member of the follow-up group on the new Dutch guideline on secondary fracture care and falls prevention. Recently he completed training as an IOF Capture the Fracture mentor. He is chairman of the Dutch nurses and nurse practitioners’ association in secondary fracture prevention and osteoporosis care organized through the national Professional Association Falls, Fracture and Osteoporosis.

Taiwan

Dr. Ding-Cheng (Derrick) Chan is the Deputy Director of Healthcare System Administration Center, and the Director of Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology National Taiwan University (NTU) Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan. He is also an attending physician of the Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology and Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine at the NTU Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan.

His research focuses on drug-related problems, frailty, sarcopenia, and osteoporosis. In 2014, he played a central role in developing the “Fracture Liaison Services (FLS)” at the National Taiwan University Hospital and its BeiHu branch. The two programs were accredited as gold medal (NTUH), and silver medal (NTUH-BB) for best practice programs of the 'Capture the Fracture' campaign from International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF). He worked with the Taiwanese Osteoporosis Association to host workshops to promote FLS network in Taiwan. In March 2017, with 22 programs, TOA received the best secondary fracture prevention campaign award at the WCO-IOF-ESCEO Florence 2017. He played a pivotal role in developing the “Consensus on Best Practice Standard for Fracture Liaison Service in the Asia Pacific Region”, and he was a Co-Chair of the Asia Pacific Fragility Fracture Alliance. Prof. Chan also actively participates in IOF CSA working groups, and annual meetings. In 2022, he participated the Capture the Fracture® Partnership (CTFP) program to become a post fracture care (PFC) mentor in Taiwan.

Turkey

Professor Gulistan Bahat is an internal medicine specialist and geriatrician at Istanbul University, Istanbul Medical Faculty specializing in sarcopenia, frailty, nutrition, osteoporosis, osteosarcopenia and inappropriate medication use in older adults. She has expertise in clinical practice and research focused on older adults. Since 2022, she has been actively contributing as a member of the Turkish National Council for Secondary Fracture Prevention and participated in Capture the Fracture project, an initiative by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF). She has been a member of FFN- Secondary Fracture Prevention Special Interest Group since 2023. Demonstrating a dedication to enhancing geriatric care, Professor Bahat actively cultivates collaborative efforts and endeavours to provide insights for comprehending and managing secondary fragility fractures and age-related conditions as a geriatrician.

Argentina

María is an endocrinologist with Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Argentina. For over twenty years she has provided care to patients with metabolic bone diseases both in the inpatient and outpatient settings. Within the institutional Fragility Fracture Unit, she leads the Fracture Liaison Service and participates in the Hip Fracture Audit. She is a professor in the Osteology Career at the Instituto Universitario del Hospital Italiano and the Asociación Argentina de Osteología y Metabolismo Mineral (AAOMM) among other teaching activities.

She coordinates the Argentinian Hip Fracture Network (RAFCA) and contributes to the development of the Argentinian Hip Fracture Audit. "Programa Pasos". 

She participates in the AAOMM's Fracture Prevention Study Group and as a mentor of the International Osteoporosis Foundation for the implementation of Fracture Liaison Services in Argentina.

Maria is Chair for the Latin America Regionalization Committee and a Board Member of the Fragility Fracture Network.

She actively works to set up networks in order to promote registries and multidisciplinary models for fracture care and prevention, aiming at improving patient outcomes and resource utilization.

Australia

Dr Jenni Suen (PhD) is an Early Career Researcher at Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute and Centre of Research Excellence for Prevention of Falls Injuries. Her research focuses on better care for older adults in community, rehabilitation, aged care, and hospital settings. In her PhD (thesis), she developed, implemented and evaluated a Student Nutrition Service Model for patients with Peripheral Arterial Disease and students studying Nutrition and Dietetics (all degrees and year levels), using mixed methods and conducted two systematic reviews. In her current role, she works on falls prevention guidelines, evidence for falls prevention interventions and quality indicators for rehabilitation care.

Jenni also practises clinically as an Accredited Practising Dietitian and the Founder of Cardiovascular Dietetics at Advanced Vascular Care. She provides personalised dietetic consultations to nutritional optimise the cardiovascular health of clients with vascular disease, heart disease, diabetic or vascular wounds and cardiovascular risk factors.