by
Loren Bonner, DOTmed News Online Editor | May 15, 2012
From the May 2012 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Rubinoff says this is likely to reduce the number of women getting scans to a further degree.
“It’s always had a low compliance rate. So if you can get patients to do it, the best way is to offer it in your office,” he says.
New recommendations for testing
Knowledge about osteoporosis as a disease, and the toll it can take on an individual’s life, has increased significantly in recent years.
Doctors who do prescribe a DXA scan for their patients 65 and older require it every 23 months since Medicare reimburses it on that schedule (younger women can be tested if they have certain risk factors). However, like many recent debates regarding recommendations for preventative screenings, medical experts have been locked in debate over just how frequently women should receive DXA scans.
A new study published by the New England Journal of Medicine in January offers a different set of recommendations from those currently endorsed by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
The NEJM study suggests that if a woman’s initial scan came back healthy, she can wait 15 years before returning for a second exam. The study followed about 5,000 white women age 67 and older, some with healthy bone density and some with moderate to advanced osteopenia. Over a 15-year period, doctors tested the woman’s bone mass regularly to monitor how the disease developed, and found that it progressed slowly, leading researchers for the first time to scientifically reason how frequently women’s bone density should be tested.
OEMs focus on diversity
While there’s not much incentive to alter the technology for DXA, OEMs are looking to other opportunities within bone density screening to expand their portfolios.
Case in point: GE Lunar offers the Achilles quantitative ultrasound technology
GE Lunar Achilles Express
in addition to its DPX and iDXA bone densitometry systems. It’s a low-cost, portable and non X-ray-based device that assesses a person’s risk for fracture, and GE has married it with DXA’s scoring system—the Tscore set by the World Health Organization based on bone density levels—to identify women who are high-risk and therefore prime candidates for a full DXA scan.
In addition, OEMs are keen on expanding DXA’s capabilities outside of bone health.
