November 15, 2019
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In October 2018, the National Institutes of Health convened a Pathways to Prevention (P2P) workshop on the Appropriate Use of Drug Therapies for Osteoporotic Fracture Prevention. As a follow-up to the workshop and an expert panel report containing research recommendations, several NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices and other federal agencies met to explore opportunities for collaborations and to outline research opportunities and next steps that will move the field forward. The federal partners issued a report of their deliberations, which is available through the Office of Disease Prevention (ODP) website.

As part of the next steps, the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA)—the scientific leads for the P2P workshop—will work with other interested federal partners to explore near- and long-term opportunities to foster research in the following areas:

  • Elucidating the pathophysiology of atypical femoral fractures (AFF), a rare but serious adverse effect of certain osteoporosis medications.
  • Leveraging of existing large clinical datasets to address pressing scientific knowledge gaps identified by the workshop and panel recommendation.
  • Identifying obstacles and barriers to the appropriate use of therapies, as well as ways to overcome them.
  • Exploring innovative strategies to address major critical knowledge gaps identified by the workshop and panel recommendations regarding appropriate long-term osteoporosis therapy use.
  • Enhancing communication and dissemination efforts, based on sound research evidence, related to the appropriate use of drug therapies to effectively and safely prevent osteoporosis fractures.

More information will be posted on the NIAMS and NIA websites as the federal partners develop these concepts further.

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