National Action Plan for Bone Health - Osteogenesis Imperfecta ...

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Building Consensus for a
National Focus on Bone Health
Building on the Surgeon General’s Vision for the Future
Much remains to be done to advance bone health and prevent and treat bone disease.
The 2004 publication of Bone Health and Osteoporosis: A Report of the Surgeon
General 14 created hopes and expectations for almost immediate advances, especially in
terms of public and clinician awareness and understanding of bone health. The report
was aimed at bridging the gap between the knowledge base and the practice regarding
the prevention of bone disease and promotion of bone health – to apply cutting-edge
research findings to actual clinical practice. It also called for greater recognition of the
importance of bone health to general health and well-being.
Bone Health and Osteoporosis: A Report of the Surgeon General specifically recommended
increasing public and professional awareness of bone health and the
effectiveness of prevention and treatment. It called for greater integration of bone
health with other health prevention issues and initiatives. The report also called for of
fragility fractures to be recognized as sentinel events for the diagnosis and treatment
of osteoporosis, and underscored a need to change the paradigm of prevention and
treatment by treating fragility fractures as “red flags” signaling potential bone disease.
The Surgeon General’s report emphasized that meeting these recommendations would
require the participation of and collaboration among multiple stakeholders and systems
(e.g., health care providers, scientific researchers, patients, advocates, policy makers,
and health organizations).
One of the key conclusions of the Surgeon General’s report was:
“More than enough is known today to get started on any of a variety of critical actions
that are needed to enhance the bone health status of Americans.”
Unfortunately, the call and challenge of the 2004 Bone Health and Osteoporosis: A
Report of the Surgeon General has not been heeded.
National Action Plan for Bone Health:
Recommendations from the Summit for a National Action Plan for Bone Health
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