"Bone health isn't scary." - New assessment resources available for bone health

Over the last 3 years, the Better bone health service improvement project has been working hard to improve findings from several rounds of the UK Parkinson’s Audit, which showed that many people with Parkinson's were not routinely assessed for fracture risk.

An innovative solution

From 2021 to 2023 the Parkinson's Excellence Network ran 2 phases of a national service improvement project developed by a multidisciplinary team with input from national experts in bone health and Parkinson’s. A quick and simple process was developed which services could easily incorporate into their clinics and 74 services from across the UK took part.

And it worked!

In the 2022 UK Parkinson's Audit (after Phase 1) the percentage of people having their bone health considered, increased from under half to 60%, and rose to 75% in services which had taken part in the project. We expect to see further improvements in the 2025 audit. The project also helped increase professionals' understanding and confidence around bone health.

Joanne Rose, Parkinson’s Nurse Specialist at The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust said: "I used to think that assessing bone health was out of my remit. It felt too complicated and time consuming, so best left to the bone health professionals. What did I learn from undertaking this project? Firstly, bone health isn’t scary. Secondly I am perfectly placed to undertake a bone health assessment, which I have found can easily be incorporated into a face to face clinic."

Of the 1800 people assessed in phase 2 of the project, 1 in 10 were started on new bone health treatment which would be expected to prevent around 5 to 6 vertebral fractures and 2 to 3 non-vertebral fractures including 1 to 2 hip fractures, potentially having a huge impact on the quality of life of people with Parkinson’s.

Bone health resources for any service to use

Fast forward to 2024 and the team is now in phase 3 of the project. This has involved taking the resources that were used by the participating teams, along with what they learned, and making them available to all services across the UK. 

The resources include a simple guidance document, a one-sheet patient assessment form, and a short video explaining how to use the resources.

HSJ partnership award finalists

And that's not all they've achieved! The success of the project has been recognised in the shortlist for a Health Safety Journal (HSJ) partnership award in the category: 'Best Not for Profit Working in Partnership with the NHS.' The team will find out if they've won at the awards ceremony in March 2024.