Regional Osteoporosis Coordinator Knowledge Exchange Trial

A. Background and Rationale. Despite the availability of proven safe and effective treatment options, the majority of patients with low trauma fracture are under-investigated and under-treated, indicating that treatment for osteoporosis after fracture is less than optimal. Most of the published studies on interventions using a coordinator recruited patients from one or a few academic centres or health maintenance organization. However, in Ontario, one-third of fracture patients are treated in non-academic centres and hospitals which have no dedicated osteoporosis fracture clinic coordinator and are underserviced for osteoporosis specialists. It remains unclear whether the impact will be as great for smaller centres where the coordinator function is centralized across multiple centres; hence the need for this trial.

B. Objectives 1. The primary objective is to evaluate if a quality improvement program including physician and patient osteoporosis recommendations from a regional osteoporosis coordinator will increase the proportion of individuals with a low trauma fracture who receive appropriate management for osteoporosis compared to those who receive only falls prevention advice.

2. A secondary objective is to determine if the above program will result in changes in perceived susceptibility, osteoporosis knowledge and use of supplements compared to those who receive only falls prevention advice.

C. Methods. Design: cluster randomized controlled trial (hospitals=cluster site) with the outcome assessors and data analyst blinded to group allocation.

Patient population: patients 40 years old and over (men and women) presenting with a low trauma fracture of the hip, forearm/wrist, rib(s), sternum, thoracic and lumbar spine, shoulder, upper arm, pelvis, lower leg and ankle. Hospitals that treat more than 40 patients/year and have no dedicated fracture clinic coordinator in their Emergency Department/Fracture Clinic will be considered.