Transcript
Announcer:
You're listening to Boning Up on Osteoporosis on ReachMD. Here's your host, Marshall Miller
Marshall Miller:
Welcome to Boning Up on Osteoporosis on ReachMD. I'm your host, Marshall Miller. I'm delighted once again to be joined by Ami Patel, Vice President, Science and Education at the Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation.
The Interdisciplinary Symposium on Osteoporosis 2026 was held recently in Washington, DC, and I was fortunate to attend once again. Today, we'll cover highlights from the meeting and get some insight from Ami on the impact of the educational experience for the attendees. Ami, welcome back to the program.
Ami Patel:
Thank you, Marshall. It's always a pleasure to be here with you.
Marshall Miller:
Ami, to get us started, what made ISO 26 an important meeting for healthcare providers and physicians working in bone health?
Ami Patel:
ISO 2026 brought the whole care team together over three days in Washington, DC. The program spanned bone health assessment, diagnosis, and management, as well as exercise, nutrition, and post-fracture care.
Anchor sessions included the Royce Lecture, the Year in Review, and a keynote on misinformation and communication. It's where the science meets everyday clinical practice.
Marshall Miller:
One of the featured offerings was the pre-symposium FLS workshop. Ami, can you explain why fracture liaison services are so important?
Ami Patel:
So, fracture liaison services, or FLS programs, are where they close the secondary prevention gap. After a fragility fracture, most patients are never evaluated or treated for the osteoporosis behind it, and that leaves them at high risk for another fracture. FLS puts a coordinated system in place to identify, evaluate, treat, and follow those patients.
The workshop gave clinicians both the rationale and the practical tools to build staff and sustain a program in their own institutions.
Marshall Miller:
Can you tell us what the FLS attendees learned during that workshop?
Ami Patel:
Yes. It was a hands-on workshop where we covered healthcare reform and care coordination, along with barriers in post-fracture care, organizing and staffing a program, patient assessment and treatment initiation, as well as secondary workup and data tracking.
These faculty-led sessions included imaging and diagnostics, as well as opportunistic screening. They spoke about treatment sequencing, insurance navigation, and secondary workup. We closed the workshop with an Ask the Experts panel. The attendees then went on to the three-day ISO conference, where they attended those sessions and then received the FLS Certificate of Completion.
Marshall Miller:
Now, that workshop also included a pre-course preparation component. How did that help participants?
Ami Patel:
The registered participants received foundational materials before the event so that they arrived ready to engage from day one. That meant we did not spend the workshop on the basics. Everyone came in with a shared foundation so the day could focus on application and the harder questions of building a program.
Marshall Miller:
Makes sense. For those of you just tuning in, you're listening to Boning Up on Osteoporosis. I'm Marshall Miller, and I'm speaking with Ami Patel about the recently held Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation ISO 26 in Washington, DC. Ami, let's shift our attention to the menopause track. Why was this such an important focus within a bone health meeting?
Ami Patel:
Menopause and bone health are closely linked. The loss of estrogen accelerates bone loss and is a leading driver of osteoporosis risk in women. This makes the transition a critical window for intervention. The track also connected menopause to sexual health and contraception, giving clinicians a more complete picture.
Marshall Miller:
Got it. And so, what were some of the menopause-related sessions attendees paid special attention to?
Ami Patel:
Joanne Pinkerton covered non-hormonal options, and Amanda Clark covered hormonal options, so attendees got to hear both sides. Lauren Striker connected menopause, sexual health, and bone loss, and Amy Kantor addressed fracture risk in users of hormonal contraception.
Marshall Miller:
So how did the content in those sessions support day-to-day clinical practice?
Ami Patel:
It translated directly to clinic. Providers left better equipped to counsel patients on hormonal versus non-hormonal therapy with bone health in mind, to address sexual health alongside bone loss, and to weigh fracture risk in contraception decisions.
Marshall Miller:
So beyond menopause and FLS, what other themes stood out in the program?
Ami Patel:
Comorbidities featured strongly within the sessions. We had sessions on diabetes and bone health, as well as bone medication and cardiovascular risk. Some of the other sessions focused on glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis, osteonecrosis of the jaw, AI and bone health, as well as pediatric bone health, orthopedics, and rare bone disease.
Marshall Miller:
And why do you think this content was especially relevant for interdisciplinary teams?
Ami Patel:
Bone health care crosses many specialties, and the program mirrored that. Some of our in-the-clinic sessions and a session on the Be Clear Communication framework, that helped the whole team learn together. Shared learning gives them a shared language to take back to their institutions.
Marshall Miller:
Now, Ami, given that wide range of educational sessions, what do you hope attendees took back to their institutions after ISO 26?
Ami Patel:
We're hoping that the attendees are able to take the practical tools that we gave them and use them right away in their clinics. For FLS participants, the confidence to start or strengthen a program.
For everyone, updated treatment knowledge, stronger patient communication skills, and the value of the interdisciplinary approach. Along with colleagues, they can keep learning them.
Marshall Miller:
Well, as those final thoughts bring us to the end of today's program, I want to thank my guest, Ami Patel, Vice President, Science and Education at the Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation, for joining me to discuss ISO 26.
Ami, it was great having you on the program.
Ami Patel:
Thank you. It was great being here, and I welcome the discussion.
Announcer:
You've been listening to Boning Up on Osteoporosis on ReachMD. To access this and other episodes in our series, visit Boning Up on Osteoporosis on ReachMD.com, where you can Be Part of the Knowledge. Thanks for listening.
