A significant and escalating worldwide health burden is the ageing population for accurate medical diagnostics. Of particular concern are osteo diseases such as osteoporosis as this results in a very significant healthcare burden, particularly in elderly populations. More than 1000 people die every month in the UK from the complications arising from osteoporosis related hip fractures and the NHS costs associated with osteoporosis hip fracture are >2.0bn per annum.

 

This research tackles the development of a new clinical instrument to predict osteoporotic fractures within an individual and this improves quality of life and reduces this health burden. It builds upon previous research that has demonstrated an effective and novel approach to achieve high accuracy fracture prediction. This project will specifically translate this original work by combing two recently developed technologies, into a new, commercially-viable, point-of-care clinical instrument.  

 

At this stage, to attain the high level of potential future success for the technology requires a blend of research and development activities. Working with clinical and industrial partners we shall explore new approaches to exploitation of the outputs from the previous research grants and create a pre-prototype, proof-of-concept system from which the relevant commercialisation of the technology can be undertaken by the industrial partners.