Asia Pacific Fragility Fracture Alliance Primary Care Toolkit: Empowering Fragility Fracture Education

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The Asia Pacific Fragility Fracture Alliance (APFFA) is a federation committed to reducing the burden of low trauma fracture throughout the region. Education on fracture prevention to those at the forefront of patient care is an important part of this effort. Methods: APFFA has curated educational materials developed by others (https//apfracturealliance.org/education-directory/) and developed a Primary Care Physician (PCP) Education Toolkit (https//apfracturealliance.org/education-toolkit/). Here we describe the toolkit and report its introduction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: The PCP Education Toolkit is designed as a half-day educational program together with supporting resources to highlight the role of primary care providers in this effort. The educational program includes a lecture focused on the burden of fracture, a lecture focused on clinical assessment of fracture risk, a discussion kit, and materials to assist with meeting planning. The discussion kit is designed to be adaptable to local practices and constraints. The supporting material features a patient handbook that gives practical advice on nutrition, home safety, and issues to be raised during medical encounters. COVID-19 hampered rollout of these materials. In addition, APFFA has relied on its constituent organizations to provide educational content to promote best practices in acute fracture management, rehabilitation, and secondary fracture prevention through the development of an education directory. The directory includes synopses and links to high quality materials from around the world. Conclusion: The PCP Education Toolkit was designed with the expectation that the program would be presented as live meetings. The pandemic made this infeasible. Despite the restrictions, the PCP Education Toolkit materials have been enthusiastically received in New Zealand and disseminated by Osteoporosis NZ. As the world emerges from the pandemic, we are looking to present this material in more venues in 2022 and beyond. The toolkit is available free of charge at the above address.