Health professionals and researchers who depend on FRAX to assess fracture risk in their patients will have this tool as a stand-alone version that operates on a desktop or laptop computer without internet access. Introduced in 2008, an initially used as an internet-based tool, FRAX is an algorithm that allows primary care physicians to use clinical risk factors, such as prior fragility fracture, to calculate a patient’s risk of fracture.
The tool is now available in 34 country models and in 18 languages and has been incorporated in many national osteoporosis guidelines, including in the USA, UK and Canada. At present more than 3.5 million individuals are assessed with FRAX each year and numbers will continue to grow as the tool becomes integrated into other country guidelines and becomes available in an increasing number of country models.
The new internet-free versions, developed in cooperation with the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) were created in response to requests from clinicians and researchers from around the world who increasingly use the tool, but are often restricted by the need for internet access.
FRAX Desktop can be licensed in two different formats:
*The Individual-Entry version mimics the front end of the current web version of FRAX and can be used to assess an unlimited number of individual patients in the clinic or other healthcare setting using any desktop or laptop computer. The subscription runs for six or twelve months. Each time the license is renewed, the subscriber receives the updated version of FRAX.
*The Multi-Patient Entry version is designed for researchers as it handles analyses of large cohorts in a single operation. Data is entered through a simple text file, the format of which is described under the help button on the screen, and the results are exported into another text file that can then be imported back into a database. The subscription, for an unlimited number of entries, is intended for single study use and download expires after one month.
Eugene McCloskey professor of Adult Bone Disease, University of Sheffield and developer of FRAX commented, “FRAX Desktop is an exciting development in the evolution of the World Health Organisation Fracture Risk Assessment Tool. Clinicians and researchers worldwide have voiced a need for this application which enables flexibility of use in any healthcare setting and facilitates multiple-entry data capture for researchers.”
