To address the significant health consequence of osteoporosis, under diagnosis and under treatment of the disease, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has launched a new osteoporosis guideline to provide clear, evidence-based recommendations to assist GPs in the management of osteoporosis sufferers.

The guideline titled the Clinical guideline for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women and older men consists of a set of four new musculoskeletal guidelines fro GPs on osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

It outlines the best way for GPs in Australia in:

- identifying, diagnosing, treating and managing, in a timely and accurate manner, men and women who have been diagnosed with at least one minimal trauma fracture

- reducing the progression of such individuals to a second fracture

- optimizing patient and physician access to information, understanding of the condition and involvement in its management in order to help patients improve their health status

Dr Chris Mitchell, president of RACGP said the guideline has been developed for GPs and other primary health care professionals to cover musculoskeletal prevention and early treatment, as there is a lack of evidence-based clinical musculoskeletal guidelines.

He said, These osteoporosis guidelines are great addition to the other musculoskeletal guidelines. All guidelines are significant because most current clinical guidelines available are consensus-based agreed on by peers, rather than evidence-based.

For more details on the guideline, please visit www.racgp.org.au

Australia Medicine Arthritis