Center for Osteoporosis and Bone Health in Fort Worth, Texas, United States
Revolutionizing bone health with Trabecular Bone Score integration
Client overview
The Center for Osteoporosis and Bone Health in Fort Worth, TX, established by Adam Bruntz, MPAS, PA-C, FLS and Dr. Gurpreet Bajaj, is a specialized practice dedicated to bone health and osteoporosis management.
After over a decade in orthopedics, Adam recognized the need fora more comprehensive approach to bone health, leading to the formation of the center in 2016.
Their mission: is to provide individualized care using advanced diagnostic technologies to improve patient out comes and prevent fractures.
The challenge
Incomplete diagnostics and compliance issues
- Incomplete diagnoses: patients with normal BMD could still suffer fragility fractures due to poor bone quality. Conversely, patients with low BMD might have better bone resilience than expected. Misinterpretations led to inappropriate treatment plans.
2. Treatment efficacy delays: without a comprehensive view of bone health, determining whether treatments were effective typically took 18-24 months. This delay made it difficult to pivot treatments in a timely manner.
3. Patient compliance: explaining treatment benefits to patients was challenging when progress wasn’t immediately visible. As Adam explained, “You almost become like a used car salesman trying to convince them that what they’ve been doing for years is working.”
These challenges underscored the need for a more precise and holistic diagnostic tool to improve patient care and compliance.
The solution
Integrating TBS OsteoTM with BMD
The combination of BMD and TBS allowed Adam and his team to more accurately assess their patients’ overall bone health. TBS revealed bone quality alongside density, reducing misdiagnoses.
To address these gaps, the Center for Osteoporosis and Bone Health integrated the Trabecular Bone Score (TBS Osteo) software into their existing GE Lunar DXA scanner. TBS measures the quality of bone microarchitecture, providing a more complete picture of bone strength and fracture risk.
The solution: integrating TBS with BMD scans and enabling precise treatment plans. When placing a patient on treatment, monitoring the efficacy of treatment is critical, and time matters.
TBS allowed Adam’s team to evaluate therapy outcomes within 4 months, compared to the traditional 18-month window. Many patients are hesitant to begin treatment, but visual TBS Osteo reports helped patients understand their bone health increasing patient-provider communication and trust.
Results and benefits post TBS Osteo integration
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1. Enhanced diagnostics
– Integrated TBS Osteo identified hidden bone quality issues even when BMD appeared normal.
– TBS Osteo combined with BMD reduced false negatives caused by degenerative changes or other artifacts affecting BMD scores.
– Example: patients with strong BMD but poor bone quality were identified as high-risk for fractures, enabling early intervention.
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3. Boosted patient compliance
– TBS Osteo visualizations made it easier for patients to see their progress, reducing uncertainty.
– Adam noted, “TBS Osteo allows us to share evidence of treatment efficacy, keeping patients engaged and compliant.”
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2. Tailored treatment plans
– Treatment decisions were more individualized, addressing both bone density and quality.
– Early detection of non-responders or medication tolerance issues allowed the team to pivot therapies swiftly.
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4. Pre-operative success
– Surgeons used TBS Osteo assessments to evaluate bone quality before spine surgeries.
– Delaying surgery until bone quality improved led to better surgical outcomes and fewer revisions.
– Adam shared, “Surgeons reported night-and-day differences in outcomes after we tailored treatments based on TBS findings.”
