WOC Updates

Strides for Strong Bones! This first annual Osteoporosis Awareness Walk takes place the day before the West Plains WunderWoman Osteoporosis Triathlon at Medical Lake in Spokane, WA.  Walk (or run) the beautiful 3 km course!  Bone density screening, education, and presentations onsite. Learn more about the event and register here to help support bone health education and screening in Washington state: www.signmeup.com/71075.

Osteoporosis Education and Screening Events:  Check our events section for 2010 scheduled programs.

Washington Osteoporosis Coalition Board Member Profile: Read about Dr. Lynn Kohlmeier's efforts to raise awareness about bone health in the National Osteoporosis Foundation's  December 2009 issue of Bone Health Advocacy E-News

Meetings

Osteoporosis Foundation of New Mexico

2010 Santa Fe Bone Symposium

August 6-7, 2010

http://www.nmbonecare.com/foundation/symposium2010.html

IBMS Sun Valley Skeletal Biology Workshop

August 1-4, 2010

Sun Valley, ID

http://www.ibmsonline.org/IBMSSunValley/tabid/213/Default.aspx

Osteoporosis Symposium

September 2010

Denver, CO

ASBMR

October 15-19, 2010

Toronto, Canada

www.asbmr.org

National Updates

Improved Access to Osteoporosis Tests: The legislation signed by the President reverses Medicare cuts to bone density testing that jeopardized patient access to osteoporosis care.   the US Congress and the President have temporarily remedied a major problem for osteoporosis diagnosis and treatment. By Congress passing and the President signing the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," HR 3590, Americans now can continue to have access to Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA testing), the imaging procedure accepted as the gold standard for preventing, diagnosing and treating osteoporosis.  HR 3590 mandates Medicare to reinstate the rate of reimbursement for this test to not less than 70 percent of 2006 rates and would provide for a study and report by the Institute of Medicine on this issue.