Dr. Miso Jang, MD, PhD, Medical Affairs director at Promedius, recently gave a presentation on "Reduction of Socioeconomic Costs by Using Chest X-ray-based Osteoporosis Screening AI Solution" at the 12th Seoul Symposium on Bone Health and 36th Spring Scientific Congress of the Korean Society for Bone and Mineral Research. In her presentation, Dr. Jang emphasized the importance of early detection and timely treatment of osteoporosis to prevent fractures, and suggested ways to reduce social costs using AI solutions and development directions of medical technologies.

According to the presentation, the estimated socioeconomic cost of osteoporotic fractures in women over the age of 50 is more than KRW 72 million over the lifetime of a single patient. "Because osteoporosis is asymptomatic, it is difficult to recognize the disease, resulting in a very low diagnosis rate, and many patients are easily exposed to fractures," said Dr. Jang. "Using AI to detect and treat osteoporosis patients in a timely manner to prevent fractures can save about KRW 70 million in personal costs."

According to Statistics Korea, Korea is expected to become a super-aged society by 2050, with more than 30% of the population composed of women over the age of 50. Under such circumstances, integrating Promedius’ AI solution in the national screening to screen and treat osteoporosis patients in advance is estimated to save KRW 2.3 trillion in social costs caused by hip fractures. The cost is expected to be even higher when considering male patients, who are less likely to be screened for osteoporosis, and multiple fractures other than hip fractures, emphasizing the importance of AI solutions’ role as a gap filler in osteoporosis diagnosis and the resulting social and economic benefits.

Their ‘CXR-based osteoporosis screening AI solution’ was recently validated in a multicenter external validation. The results, presented at the poster exhibition of the Korean Society for Bone and Mineral Research, won the Best Poster Award among 80 clinical trial posters, appreciated for its clinical performance.

In addition, Promedius is currently conducting a global collaboration with a European research team to study the cost-effectiveness of implementing the osteoporosis screening AI solution in countries with a large number of osteoporosis patients, such as the United States, Germany, and Japan. The results of the study will be presented at the World Osteoporosis Congress (WCO) next year in Rome, Italy.