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Danielle Whittier
Cumming School of Medicine, Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy,
University Calgary

Abstract

Osteoporosis is a condition often related to aging where bones become fragile and more likely to fracture during typical day-to-day activities. Approximately 1 in 2 women and 1 in 5 men will suffer an osteoporotic fracture in their lifetime. As our population ages and people live longer, the number of fractures due to osteoporosis are projected to increase dramatically over the next decade, overwhelming healthcare systems worldwide. However, it is notoriously difficult to identify who is at risk of fracture, and there is urgent need to improve diagnosis. In this talk will discuss how we found ourselves in this situation, and how advanced medical imaging combined with computational modelling can improve patient-specific assessment of bone health, and might help get us out of an imminent world health crisis.

Bio: Dr. Danielle Whittier is an Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary, specializing in advanced musculoskeletal imaging and computational modelling. She obtained her BSc in Engineering Physics at Queen’s University and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Calgary. Her research seeks to characterize patient-specific bone health using advanced imaging, with particular focus on understanding the mechanisms leading to bone fragility and osteoporotic fracture. Her approach has led to identification of bone microarchitecture phenotypes across the population, and development of novel clinically oriented tools for predicting fracture risk.

Timbits, coffee, tea will be served in STI A before the colloquium.