New funding will help to identify Osteoporosis fractures

21 Apr 2017

A team from the School of Health Sciences has been awarded £867,000 by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Invention for Innovation programme to develop a novel software system that will identify vertebral (spine) fractures, a sign of osteoporosis.

Professor Tim Cootes and Dr Paul Bromiley in the Division of Informatics, Imaging & Data Sciences together with Professor Katherine Payne in the Division of Population Health, Health Services Research & Primary Care are working with Professor Judith Adams and Dr Eleni Kariki at the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Dr Anthony Holmes and Dr Joes Staal from Optasia Medical Ltd to build a fully automated computer system, that can be used to analyse medical images containing the spine and accurately identify any vertebral fractures. These fractures are an early sign of Osteoporosis (brittle bones). The team will run a clinical study to establish how well the system works, how many patients it could help, and incorporate patients’ feedback about how it should be used.

Fractures due to Osteoporosis are a considerable burden for patients and the NHS, affecting half of all women and one in five men over the age of 50. By 2025, treatment of fractures is estimated to cost the UK more than £5.5 billion.

Tim Cootes, Professor of Computer Vision in the Centre for Imaging Sciences, comments: “Through our previous work we have developed an effective prototype. This new funding will enable us to test and further develop the system within a real-life setting, integrated within existing NHS systems and with patient involvement. More than half of these fractures do not cause any pain so often go unnoticed. Our new system will identify people with vertebral fractures, who may otherwise have been missed.”

For more information about the project click HERE.