APFFA Joint Steering Committee staged fourth bi-annual meeting on November 24
On Tuesday, November 24, 2020, members of the Asia Pacific Fragility Fracture Alliance (APFFA) Joint Steering Committee (JSC) convened for their fourth biannual meeting, held via Zoom.
The two-hour virtual meeting attracted representation from five of APFFA’s seven member organisations, including the International Society for Clinical Densitometry (ISCD), Asia Pacific Geriatric Medicine Network (APGMN), Fragility Fracture Network (FFN), Asia-Oceanian Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (AOSPRM) and the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF).
The meeting provided those leading the three APFFA Working Groups a platform to present their progress to date, and to discuss their plans for 2021 with members of the JSC. Open dialogue among all participants resulted in a highly productive meeting.
Since the last JSC meeting held on Sunday, May 31, 2020, APFFA’s three Working Groups have pursued the following initiatives:
The Education Working Group
The Education Working Group has produced two resources:
- A patient-focused booklet entitled ‘Your Bone Health Handbook’, which is now available for download on the APFFA website, and
- A Primary Care Physician (PCP) Education Toolkit designed to arm PCPs with practical resources to aid the identification, assessment and ongoing management of those at risk of fractures, and thereby improve the safety and quality of patient care. The Education Working Group coordinated a successful media launch of their Toolkit on September 28, generating more than half a million ‘opportunities to see’ across Asia Pacific news media outlets.
This Group also performed a literature review to determine stakeholder perceptions of the importance of treating fragility fractures and osteoporosis, the findings of which were presented as posters at the Asia-Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology (APLAR) 2020 Virtual Congress and the Virtual Australian and New Zealand Bone Mineral Society’s (ANZBMS) 30th Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM). Presentations introducing APFFA were also delivered at the World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases (WCO-IOF-ESCEO), and to the American Society of Bone Mineral Research (ASBMR) Annual Meeting, also a Virtual event.
The Hip Fracture Registry (HFR) Working Group
The Hip Fracture Registry (HFR) Working Group is currently working on two systematic reviews – one on mortality and outcomes, and a second on the epidemiology of hip fractures across the Asia Pacific region. Data extraction is expected to commence shortly. A Hip Fracture Registry Toolbox is being developed as a collaboration between the APFFA HFR Working Group and the FFN Hip Fracture Audit Special Interest Group. The Toolbox is scheduled to be launched during Q1 2021.
The Evidence Generation Working Group
The Evidence Generation Working Group is currently undertaking the following two studies in collaboration with Amgen:
- The Global Burden of Hip Fracture study, and
- A sprint audit of acute and post-acute hip fracture management in Asia.
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The meeting also included an update on APFFA’s strategic communication activities since the previous meeting held in May during which we have grown our LinkedIn following substantially, due to regular blog posts from member organisations, sharing newsworthy articles on our LinkedIn channel, and a supporting paid social media content strategy.
APFFA co-Chairs, Dato’ Dr. Joon-Kiong Lee, Malaysia and Prof Derrick Chan, Taiwan, concluded the alliance’s fourth biannual meeting acknowledging the substantial progress achieved since APFFA’s establishment in November 2018. They further congratulated members of the three Working Groups for their invaluable contributions to date, during what has proven to be an extremely challenging year.
“I would like to express my appreciation to all members of the APFFA Working Groups, as well as members of the APFFA Project Team, for their unwavering support of APFFA this year, which has allowed us to continue to fulfill our mission – to promote multidisciplinary collaboration and change policy, to facilitate best practice in the acute care, rehabilitation and secondary prevention of fragility fractures ,” said Dato’ Dr. Lee.
Prof Chan further reiterated Dr Lee’s appreciation of the substantial contribution made by APFFA members to date, citing “APFFA has achieved a lot in the past two years, despite the challenges we faced in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our organisation has witnessed many recent developments, as demonstrated by today’s call, and we hope to see further growth in 2021.”
To stay up to date with APFFA’s progress in driving policy change, improving awareness and changing mindsets to optimise fragility fracture management in Asia Pacific, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn – asia-pacific-fragility-fracture-alliance.
