Inventors: Jessica Tang, Meghali Banerjee, Adanna Onukogu, Anita May John, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford & Imperial College, London
Osteoporosis affects over 500 million people globally, causing fragility fractures that result in severe pain and disability. In adults, the diagnosis of osteoporosis requires a measurement of bone mineral density (BMD) with a Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) scan.
There are, however, several situations in which DXA results give an imperfect picture, or in which access to DXA is limited by geographic location. In cases of paediatric osteoporosis, a diagnosis can not be made by BMD alone and requires additional fracture history, physical examination, X-ray imaging, and blood tests. For adults and children, DXA requires specialist referral which is a barrier for older and vulnerable patients, and the UK scanner availability is among the lowest in Europe, below the international benchmark of 1 per 100,000 people. Access to DXA is even more limited globally. In low to middle income countries, a DXA scan is often not available or is an expensive option, so a diagnosis of osteoporosis could only be made with X-rays after a fracture has occurred.
For these reasons, alternative methods of osteoporosis screening are warranted. Ultrasound utilizes sound waves to create a reflection map of impedance between tissues and interferences. Its radiation-free, non-invasive and portable nature makes ultrasound well-suited to screening in community and low-resource settings.
Osstrack has developed a software that uses ultrasound B-Mode images to stratify patients based on low and high risk for bone fragility. They are currently developing clinical pilots in collaboration with the University of Sheffield in a paediatric setting and with the government hospitals in Kannur and Kozhikode, Kerala, India, for adult populations.
The challenge for the i-Team is to identify the highest-value clinical and community applications of this technology across paediatric and adult populations and define the optimal route to market across the UK, US, and global markets.