In this interview with the Head of Growth for Echolight Medical, Alex Exposito, we discuss the limitations of DXA technology, how REMS technology works, and why it could very well be the future for the prevention, diagnosis, and monitoring of osteoporosis.
3:51: Alex’s background and the story of Echolight Medical
5:01: What is REMS technology?
7:07: The need for REMS and improving on current DXA scans
9:05: TBS versus the REMS Fragility score
9:55: REMS and how it compares to the FRAX tool
10:42: What areas of the body are assessed using REMS
11:58: What patients experience using REMS technology
13:25: What to expect from REMS exam results
14:15: How REMS results are affected by previous surgeries, vertebroplasty, kyphoplasty etc.
15:41: How REMS results are affected by scoliosis and varying spinal anatomy
17:48: Studies on EchoS and REMS technology
19:12: DXA scans’ “least significant change” or margin of error
23:45: Technician error in DXA versus REMS
25:54: How REMS results are affected by being small-boned or petite
26:54: REMS limitations
27:45: Frequency of REMS testing
28:33: Insurance coverage and out-of-pocket costs 31:00: What physicians can be doing to increase adoption of REMS
31:46: What patients can do to learn more about Echolight Medical and REMS technology
Resources Mentioned:
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Show notes and resources mentioned: https://bonecoach.com/osteoporosis-testing-echolight-rems https://bonecoach.com/osteoporosis-testing-echolight-rems
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About Alex Exposito & Echolight Medical:
Welcome welcome to this episode of the BoneCoach™ Show, today we’re going to explore the prevention, diagnosis, and short and long term monitoring of osteoporosis through testing.
Accurate bone strength testing and fragility scoring plays such an important role in establishing a correct diagnosis of osteoporosis, understanding the severity, predicting the risk of future fracture, and monitoring changes in bone over time. We need this information to make the most educated and informed decisions for our health moving forward.
That’s why today I’m joined by Alex Exposito who heads up the growth and business development efforts of Echolight Medical. Echolight Medical is an innovative company that has developed the first clinically available method for radiation free bone health assessment. Echolight’s journey started in 2010 when their team had a vision and idea for developing the first radiation-free device for early diagnosis of osteoporosis at the lumbar vertebrae and the femoral neck. Over the years they’ve been able to patent this technology, grow a scientific advisory board, gain approval from the FDA, participate in multiple studies that showed favorable results, and are working toward making their technology a new standard for assessing bone strength and fracture risk.
The device they’ve created is called EchoS, and it utilizes a proprietary R.E.M.S. technology (Radiofrequency Echographic Multi Spectrometry) technology. This technology scans the lumbar vertebrae and proximal femur and provides a report on bone mineral density (BMD), T-score, Z-score, quality of bone microarchitecture, and provides a five-year probability of a major osteoporosis fracture.
Currently, today, most people are familiar with a bone density scan called DXA. If you were told you had osteoporosis by your doctor, most likely you’ve had a DXA scan.
DXA stands for Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. This measures the mineral content of the bones in certain areas of the skeleton. At this point in time, this is the most widely used test for helping to diagnose and monitor osteoporosis. It’s the current gold standard.
But what we’re going to explore today with Alex is why R.E.M.S. technology (Radiofrequency Echographic Multi Spectrometry) technology may very well be the future of prevention, diagnosis, and short and long term monitoring of osteoporosis.
