Fracture Fest 2023
On 10th and 11th May, Fracture Liaison Service (FLS) staff from around the country gathered at their 2nd annual “Fracture Fest” education days. Fifty participants including Geriatricians, Endocrinologists, GP’s, clinical nurse specialists, physio and occupational therapy staff, pharmacists and administration personnel braved the rough Auckland weather to attend a themed day to learn all about “Vertebral Fractures” at Auckland City Hospital.
The new ANZ Fragility Fracture Registry (ANZFFR) which became live in March 2022 hosts the education day each year with support from Osteoporosis NZ (ONZ) and ACC, with the aim of gathering all the FLS’s that are using the Registry.
All 19 FLS’s were represented and treated to a wide variety of presentations on Day 1 covering spine anatomy, osteoporosis treatment, fracture epidemiology and a launch of the ACC Nymbl which supports older adults with both exercise and cognitive function through a phone app. The afternoon was dedicated to case studies and workshops, where teams discussed DEXA scan access, vertebral fracture identification and FLS workflow. The highlight of Day 1 was a talk from Carolyn Copper, Aged Care Commissioner who thanked and supported the work of all teams working clinically and acknowledged the achievement of the Fragility Fracture Registry which reached its 10,000 patient that week. Carolyn emphasized there is still much work to do to support the older adult, highlighting how life changing a fragility fracture can be.
Day 2 focused on individual clinician groups and was spilt into workshops and an AGM for the Fracture Liaison Network NZ (FLNNZ). Feedback from the event has been very positive reported Nicola Ward ANZFFR NZ coordinator, “Everyone enjoys the coming together and sharing of our services, processes and success in providing care for our fragility fracture patients.” It is good to learn from other services and acknowledge the inequalities of service around the country, to move forward and improve care and service provision”.
The ANZFFR will produce its first report in early 2024, which will highlight fragility fracture patient care and outcomes from across the motu. The FFR is a component of national quality improvement initiative being led by the ACC, ONZ and other partners in the Live Stronger for Longer Program. The FFR enables FLS teams, in real time, to benchmark the care they provide, identify variation in service delivery and continuously improve secondary fragility fracture prevention to ensure
equitable care, consistent delivery and improved patient outcomes.
