Virtual meeting of Iranian Osteoporosis Research Network

Network members from different universities of Iran participated in the meeting. The meeting started with a speech of Prof. Bagher Larijani, Director and Chief scientific officer of EMRI, elaborating on the importance of such networks to facilitate knowledge and experience transfer between members to ultimately provide better health services for patients.

Prof. Larijani then provided some fast facts on osteoporosis by saying that fractures from osteoporosis are more common than heart attack, stroke and breast cancer combined.  

He also noted that worldwide 1 in 3 women over age 50 will experience osteoporotic fractures, as will 1 in 5 men aged over 50. 

Prof. Larijani then highlighted the role of BMD and said, “a  10% loss of bone mass in the vertebrae can double the risk of vertebral fractures, and similarly, a 10% loss of bone mass in the hip can result in a 2.5 times greater risk of hip fracture “ .

In the rest of this meeting  Dr.Afshin Ostovar, Head of Osteoporosis Research Center affiliated to EMRI, provided a summary report of activities launched in the EMRI on osteoporosis and called for further involvement of members of National Osteoporosis Research Networks in the EMRI projects. 

Dr. Ostovar then noted that EMRI members actively participated in the IOF congress, 15 abstracts were submitted; of them, two were selected for the oral and the rest for poster presentation. 

Regarding then international course of  Essential of Densitometry, Diagnosis, and Management of Osteoporosis  by ISCD and IOF, he said, “we have organized 10 courses in 2019-2020, focusing on specific educational zones in Iran. Two out of 10 courses were taken place in Tehran and Shiraz, and we had also planned to conduct two other courses in Mashhad and Ahwaz; however, these two OE courses have been postponed, in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19. 

We hope to reschedule the courses once the situation would be normal. Head of Osteoporosis Research Center affiliated to EMRI pointed out that we are going to conduct the new round of IMOS study in 2020, including almost 2500 participants aged over 50 years, from 6 provinces that are nationally representative of Iranian population. 

The protocol has been developed and finalized. The questionnaire was developed and validated and software was designed for online data entry.   

He continued, “All infrastructure and logistics are ready and BMD collaborating centers were trained specifically. We will start the study once the epidemic is controlled”.  

In the rest of this meeting Dr. Mahnaz Sanjari, and Dr. Ali Jalili, two active members of osteoporosis Research Center provided a summary of activities conducted so far on the updating the guideline of osteoporosis management in Iran. 

They said that we started to update the guideline of osteoporosis management in Iran in collaboration with the Ministry of Health.   

In this regard, they added that all related protocols have been reviewed and several meetings were taken place with the experts in different fields related to osteoporosis and we hope to finalize the task in a couple of months. 

Dr. Ostovar then introduced Capture the Fracture as a global programme designed by International Osteoporosis Foundation to facilitate the implementation of coordinated, multi-disciplinary models of care for secondary fracture prevention in the Region.

He then suggested that candidate centers will be provided by technical support by the EMRI in order to launch a new FLS service. Then, a story of a successful FLS center established in the City of Gorgan was provided to participants.