Good news for the many health professionals and researchers who depend on FRAX® to assess fracture risk in their patients: The essential internet-based tool can now be downloaded as a stand-alone version that operates on a desktop or laptop computer without internet access.
Launched by the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Metabolic Bone Diseases, University of Sheffield, UK in 2008, FRAX® is a major milestone in helping health professionals improve the identification of patients at high risk of fracture. The tool is now available in 34 country models and in 18 languages and has been incorporated in many national osteoporosis guidelines, including in the USA, UK and Canada. At present more than 3.5 million individuals are assessed with FRAX® each year, and numbers will continue to grow as the tool becomes integrated into other country guidelines and becomes available in an increasing number of country models.
The new internet-free versions, developed in cooperation with the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) and available by subscription at http://who-frax.org/index.php, were created in response to requests from clinicians and researchers from around the world who increasingly use the tool, but are often restricted by the need for internet access.
FRAX®Desktop can be licensed in two different formats:
The Individual-Entry version mimics the front end of the current web version of FRAX® and can be used to assess an unlimited number of individual patients in the clinic or other healthcare setting using any desktop or laptop computer. The subscription runs for six or twelve months. Each time the license is renewed, the subscriber receives the updated version of FRAX®.
The Multi-Patient Entry version is designed for researchers as it handles analyses of large cohorts in a single operation. Data is entered through a simple text file, the format of which is described under the help button on the screen, and the results are exported into another text file that can then be imported back into a database. The subscription, for an unlimited number of entries, is intended for single study use and download expires after one month.
System requirements include Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 and .NET Framework 2.0.
IOF, which supports the maintenance and development of FRAX®, has applied license fees to FRAX®Desktop in order to cover the maintenance costs of the websites and the development of future versions of FRAX®. Use of the online FRAX® tool at http://www.shef.ac.uk/FRAX/ remains free of charge. An iPhone App (also functions with iPad) is available for a nominal fee via iTunes. Other FRAX-related resources, including an educational slide kit and FRAX Pad questionnaires are available on the IOF website at http://www.iofbonehealth.org .
Professor Eugene McCloskey M.D., Professor of Adult Bone Disease, University of Sheffield and developer of FRAX commented, "FRAX®Desktop is an exciting development in the evolution of the WHO Fracture Risk Assessment Tool. Clinicians and researchers worldwide have voiced a need for this application which enables flexibility of use in any healthcare setting and facilitates multiple-entry data capture for researchers."
About FRAX®
The ultimate aim of the clinician in the management of osteoporosis should be to reduce the risk of fractures. Treatment decisions must be made through good clinical judgment and through improved identification of patients at high risk. FRAX® is a simple calculation tool that integrates clinical information in a quantitative manner to predict a 10-year probability of major osteoporotic fracture for both women and men in different countries. Developed at the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Metabolic Bone Diseases, University of Sheffield, UK, the tool assists primary health care providers to better target people in need of intervention, improving the allocation of healthcare resources towards patients most likely to benefit from treatment. The tool can be accessed free of charge at http://www.shef.ac.uk/FRAX/ and is also available as a desktop application or iPhone App.
About IOF
The International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) is a non-profit, nongovernmental umbrella organization dedicated to the worldwide fight against osteoporosis, the disease known as "the silent epidemic". IOF's members – committees of scientific researchers, patient, medical and research societies and industry representatives from around the world – share a common vision of a world without osteoporotic fractures. IOF now represents 199 societies in 93 locations. http://www.iofbonehealth.org