IBEX Trueview® – A Revolution in Bone Health Screening
The NHS currently spends over £1bn per annum on the diagnosis and treatment of hip fractures, but sadly it remains the largest single cause of accident-related death in the UK with a third of patients dying within a year of first presenting at hospital. There is currently no method for routinely assessing bone health in the general population, and typically osteoporosis is only diagnosed following a serious debilitating fracture and assessment on specialist DEXA scanning equipment.
Uniquely, IBEX Trueview® software will measure a patient’s bone health from a standard X-ray, meaning that the early signs of a problem can be identified from the first fracture, 10-15 years before the onset of serious osteoporosis. This will lead to earlier and population-wide assessment for osteoporosis and more timely and targeted treatment to reduce the future risk of more serious fractures.
In preliminary analysis of data from a trial of 130 patients attending for a DEXA scan at the James Cook University Hospital, IBEX Trueview® technology gave a better prediction of DEXA outcome than age or gender and demonstrated excellent agreement to the current gold standard CT and DEXA methods. This result confirms the huge potential Trueview has to have a major positive impact on bone health assessment. The company is now engaged in advanced discussions with a number of major global healthcare companies to incorporate this novel feature in their standard X-ray equipment.
Professor Amar Rangan, Consultant Orthopaedic surgeon, and Principal Investigator for the clinical study commented: “The data I have seen from the study so far is fascinating and exciting, as I think it has the potential to change the way we screen individuals to assess their bone health.”
Dr Stephen Tuck, Consultant Rheumatologist and co-investigator added: “I am now convinced that this technology could make a major contribution to the identification of people with osteoporosis and at risk of fractures.”
Neil Loxley, CEO of IBEX, concluded: “We are excited by the preliminary results of the trial, which we believe demonstrate the first major innovation in the osteoporosis diagnosis since the introduction of DEXA more than three decades ago. I am grateful for the support of clinical and research staff at JCUH and look forward to reporting progress in commercialising this new capability in the near future.”
