The most catastrophic fracture that older people affected by osteoporosis can suffer is that of the femur: 20% of patients die within a year because of the fracture, and the vast majority never regain their original mobility and independence.

Osteoporosis is a disease that affects the bones and makes them more fragile, so that an otherwise harmless fall can lead to a fracture. It mainly affects older women who show no symptoms prior to the fracture event. It is therefore of the utmost importance to recognise patients at high risk of fracture at an early stage and to initiate therapies and interventions.

The EDITH partner, the University of Bologna, has developed a new digital twin for the use-case osteoporosis to predict the risk of femur fractures in elderly patients based on a femur CT scan. This solution combines patient-specific bone models with stochastic fall models to account for variability and increase accuracy and applicability. The model helps healthcare professionals to assess patients’ fracture risk and adapt behavioural and pharmacological treatment.

This digital twin has surpassed the current clinical standard for osteoporosis diagnosis based on retrospective data and is now involved in a clinical trial for validation with a prospective cohort.