UK medtech company demonstrates the clinical effectiveness of a radical
new product that can reduce the £1bn annual UK cost of hip fractures.
IBEX, the UK-based pioneer in medical X-ray imaging technology, has demonstrated in a
clinical trial with a team of researchers from The James Cook University Hospital in
Middlesbrough a revolutionary new technology that will provide an early warning of a
patient’s risk of potentially fatal fragility fractures to facilitate more timely and targeted
intervention.
The NHS currently spends over £1bn per annum on the diagnosis and treatment of hip
fractures, but sadly it remains the largest single cause of accident-related death in the UK
with a third of patients dying within a year of first presenting at hospital. There is currently
no method for routinely assessing bone health in the general population, and typically
osteoporosis is only diagnosed following a serious debilitating fracture and assessment on
specialist DEXA scanning equipment.
Uniquely, IBEX Trueview® software will measure a patient’s bone health from a standard Xray,
meaning that the early signs of a problem can be identified from the first fracture, 10-
15 years before the onset of serious osteoporosis. This will lead to earlier and populationwide
assessment for osteoporosis and more timely and targeted treatment to reduce the
future risk of more serious fractures.
In preliminary analysis of data from a trial of 130 patients attending for a DEXA scan at
James Cook , IBEX Trueview® technology gave a better prediction of DEXA outcome than age
or gender and demonstrated excellent agreement to the current gold standard CT and DEXA
methods. This result confirms the huge potential Trueview has to have a major positive
impact on bone health assessment. The company is now engaged in discussions with a
number of major global healthcare companies to incorporate this novel feature in their
standard X-ray equipment.
Professor Amar Rangan, Consultant Orthopaedic surgeon, and Chief Investigator for the
clinical study commented: “The data I have seen from the study so far is fascinating and
exciting, as I think it has the potential to change the way we screen individuals to assess
their bone health.”
Dr Stephen Tuck, Consultant Rheumatologist and co-investigator added: “I am now
convinced that this technology could make a major contribution to the identification of
people with osteoporosis and at risk of fractures”
Neil Loxley, CEO of IBEX, concluded: “We are excited by the preliminary results of the trial,
which we believe demonstrate the first major innovation in the osteoporosis diagnosis since
the introduction of DEXA more than three decades ago. I am grateful for the support of clinical
and research staff at The James Cook University Hospital and look forward to reporting
progress in commercialising this new capability in the near future.”