by
Lauren Dubinsky, Senior Reporter | September 12, 2014
From the July 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Lee says that 54 percent of the entire population of people aged 50 and above either have low bone mass or full-blown osteoporosis. In the U.S., there are two million osteoporotic fractures per year, which is currently costing the economy about 17 billion dollars and is estimated to go up to 25 billion by 2025.
With demographics shifting to an older population, those numbers are going to continue to grow. Despite that, the seriousness of osteoporosis is still underestimated.
“Osteoporosis and low bone mass, I would say, really isn’t that recognized by patients,” says Lee. “We’ve gotten feedback on the consumer side and they feel like it’s a regular part of aging and there’s nothing you can do to prevent fractures caused by osteoporosis.”
What about the manufacturers?
Since physicians are discarding their old DXAs and refusing to purchase new ones, it’s having a telling effect on the manufacturers. GE Healthcare is one of the leaders in the DXA market and they say that their U.S. sales have flattened out as a result of the cuts.
However, there is some hope. They are seeing continued growth in Asia — particularly China, and Latin America, says Tom Webb, product manager for DXA at GE. In the U.S., they are starting to take a different approach with DXA.
“We are indeed looking at the adjacent markets that would help expand our reach into areas that perhaps aren’t typically related to osteoporosis care or acute bone care,” says Webb. Those areas are orthopedic surgery and body composition.
GE has released software updates called enCore Version 14 for its DXA systems that includes measurement capabilities for visceral fat and enCore Version 15, which adds simplified reporting structures and simplified options.
The most recent release is Version 16, which received FDA clearance in May. It allows physicians to take total body scans for every pediatric age and also includes Orthopedic Knee, which measures bone mass density periprosthetically.
Hologic, another leader in the market, is also going in that direction. In 2011, the company included the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey whole body reference data into its Discovery DXA systems so that they can be used for body composition studies.
The company also released another update last July called Horizon that has a very low noise detector. Whether it’s used for body composition studies or bone density evaluations, it provides much better image quality for obese patients.
But not every company is affected by the cuts. Integrity Medical Systems Inc., a used equipment company based in Florida, has recently seen their sales go up.
