McMaster PhD Student Uses AI to Predict Fractures

“Could AI be used to assess fracture risk for older adults?

That’s the question at the heart of research being done by PhD student Edward Chu, who is exploring how machine learning could predict fractures in older adults with osteoporosis.

Currently, when health-care practitioners are trying to determine whether someone has osteoporosis — low bone mass and deterioration of bone tissue that is a factor in the likelihood of fractures — they’ll use a DXA scan, a medical imaging test that measures bone density.

Depending on the condition of your bones, future fracture risk is then predicted through questionnaires, which draw on age, sex and other clinical factors – but not the DXA scan results.

Chu wants to change that, so that DXA scans are taken into account when predicting fracture risk – making estimates of risk more specific to an individual.

“What’s really being overlooked is… they’re not really looking at your images,” Chu said. “They’re taking some of factors and giving you a generalized score for that.”

“We want to take those images, where you can actually see the structure of your bone, and where the most intensities are in terms of your bone material, and bring that into a clinical application where we actually do take into account the DXA scan.”

This approach could provide a far more comprehensive tool for predicting the fracture risk if you have osteoporosis – a disease that affects more than two million Canadians aged 40 and up.“

Read the full article on the McMaster University’s website.

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