Episode Description:
Over 2.3 million Canadians live with osteoporosis, a medical condition that increases their risk of breaking bones. It’s often called a silent disease because a person’s bones can deteriorate for years, and without their knowledge, before they receive a diagnosis.
“Much like high blood pressure, patients often don’t know they have osteoporosis until they experience life-changing fractures,” said Dr. Raheem Kherani, a rheumatologist and clinician investigator at Arthritis Research Canada.
It’s a myth that osteoporosis only affects women. Men over 50 can also have it. And, steroid medications used to treat conditions like rheumatoid arthritis can accelerate bone loss and increase osteoporosis risk – even in younger people.
Arthritis Research Canada’s scientists are conducting research to improve diagnosis, treatment and overall care for people living with osteoporosis. Learn more about this research and bone health in Episode 18 of the Arthritis Research Education Series.
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Content and Topic of Research
Research
Osteoporosis is a medical condition that leads to an increased risk of bone fracture. It affects over 2.3 million Canadians, can impact quality of life and even increase a person’s risk of death.
“One in 5 people can pass away following a hip fracture,” said Dr. Raheem Kherani, a Clinician Investigator at Arthritis Research Canada.
Dr. Kherani and Dr. Carrie Ye have conducted extensive research to understand fracture risk and improve quality of osteoporosis diagnosis and care.
Expand the menus below and click the links to learn more about osteoporosis and bone health research at Arthritis Research Canada.
Fracture Risk & Prevention Research
- Preventing the Next Fracture: Spreading Fracture Liaison Service Across British Columbia
- Virtual Intervention for Vertebral frActure (VIVA): A Pilot, Feasibility Study for a Pragmatic Hybrid Implementation-Effectiveness Randomized Controlled Trial
- Virtual Intervention for Vertebral frActures (VIVA): Protocol for a Feasibility Study of a Multicentre Randomized Controlled Trial
- Breaking the Cycle of Recurrent Fracture: Implementing the First Fracture Liaison Service (FLS) in British Columbia, Canada
- Age at First Fracture and Later Fracture Risk in Older Adults Undergoing Osteoporosis Assessment
- Association of Vertebral Fractures with Worsening Degenerative Changes of the Spine: A Longitudinal Study
- Fracture Risk Prediction Using the Fracture Risk Assessment Tool in Individuals With Cancer
- Adjusting FRAX Estimates of Fracture Probability Based on a Positive Vertebral Fracture Assessment
- Performance of FRAX in Men With Prostate Cancer: A Registry-Based Cohort Study
- Fracture Risk and Assessment in Adults with Cancer
Medications & Osteoporosis Research
- Increase in Major Osteoporotic Fractures after Therapy with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors
- Assessing the Effects of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors on Bone Utilizing Machine Learning-Assisted Opportunistic Quantitative Computed Tomography
- Osteoporotic Fractures: An Unrecognized Adverse Event of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors?
- Fracture Rate Increases after Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Treatment: A Potential New Immune Related Adverse Event
Osteoporosis Treatment Research
- Targeted Coaching to Improve Osteoporosis Therapy Adherence: A Single Arm Variation of the C-STOP Study
- Evaluation of Care Delivery by a Novel Multidisciplinary Bone Health Clinic for Patients at Risk of Glucocorticoid-Induced Osteoporosis
- Prior Adherence to Statins is a Predictor of Subsequent Adherence and Persistence to Oral, but not Parenteral, Osteoporosis Medications
- Long-Term Tolerability of the Bisphosphonates in Postmenopausal Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis Complications Research
Arthritis & Osteoporosis Research
Research Scientist
Dr. Raheem Kherani, BSc (Pharm), MD, MHPE
Rheumatologist | Clinician Investigator, Arthritis Research Canada
Dr. Raheem Kherani is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia and a Clinician Investigator at Arthritis Research Canada. He currently practices as a rheumatologist at West Coast Rheumatology Associates, the GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre and Vancouver General Hospital, and serves as the Division Head of Rheumatology in the Department of Medicine at Richmond Hospital.
He completed his Pharmacy and Medicine degrees at the University of Alberta with residency training at the University of Toronto, McMaster University and the University of British Columbia. Dr. Kherani went on to obtain a Masters in Health Professions Education degree at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.
Dr. Kherani is past Program Director of Adult Rheumatology at UBC, past Chair of the Canadian Rheumatology Association Education Committee, and a past member of the Royal College Specialty Committee in Rheumatology. He is the current Chair of the BC Coalition of Osteoporosis Physicians. He has assisted in the development of osteoporosis and Sjögren’s disease initiatives in British Columbia, including clinical trials, fracture liaison services and collaborative clinics. He is the Medical Lead for the Intensive Collaborative Arthritis Program at the Mary Pack Arthritis Centre.
Dr. Carrie Ye, MD, MPH, FRCPC
Rheumatologist | Research Scientist, Arthritis Research Canada
Dr. Carrie Ye is an Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, at the University of Alberta, Edmonton. She has a rheumatology practice focused on osteoporosis and rheumatic toxicities of cancer immunotherapy. She is the Medical Director of the Northern Alberta Osteoporosis Program and the Clinical Lead of the Canadian Research Group of Rheumatology in Immuno-Oncology (CanRIO). She completed medical school and rheumatology training at the University of Alberta, and a Master’s degree in Public Health, clinical epidemiology, at Harvard School of Public Health.
Dr. Ye completed her rheumatology training in 2016 and began her career as a clinician-educator, serving a five-year term as Program Director of the University of Alberta Rheumatology Training Program. As a clinician, she encountered numerous gaps in the literature, which fueled her passion for conducting clinical studies to address these unmet needs. Over time, she transitioned to a clinician-researcher and was appointed to her first academic position as an Assistant Professor in July 2021. She earned her Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, focusing on epidemiology. Her advanced training in statistics led her to further studies in machine learning, which she has since applied to a range of projects using artificial intelligence to enhance patient care.
Dr. Ye has a clinical interest in osteoporosis and established the Multidisciplinary Bone Health Clinic at the University of Alberta Hospital in 2016. This clinic has since evolved into the Northern Alberta Osteoporosis Program (NAOP), now comprising a team of five physician specialists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dietitians, pharmacists, and administrative staff. NAOP encompasses a clinical service, a research database and program, a resident training rotation in osteoporosis, and a patient education initiative. Under the mentorship of Dr. William D. Leslie, she has used administrative health data to assess fracture risk in various populations.
Her clinical and research work on osteoporosis and fracture risk in cancer patients led to close collaborations with oncologists, coinciding with the adoption of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) as a standard of care. These collaborations sparked her interest in rheumatic toxicities associated with ICIs. In 2019, she co-founded CanRIO (the Canadian Research Group of Rheumatology in Immuno-Oncology) with rheumatologists across Canada and was elected the Clinical Sciences Lead of its Scientific Advisory Committee. Building on her experience with the NAOP database, she developed two national CanRIO databases: the CanRIO Prospective Database (which includes clinical and biobanking data) and the CanRIO Retrospective Database (clinical data only). These databases have been instrumental in addressing key questions in this emerging area of rheumatology.
She led the development of the Canadian Rheumatology Association (CRA)/CanRIO GRADE Consensus Guidelines for managing pre-existing autoimmune disease during ICI therapy. With support from the Alberta Cancer Foundation, she leads the first placebo-controlled trials for treating ICI-associated inflammatory arthritis (IMPACT 2.0 and IMPACT 2.1). In 2020, she and Dr. Janet Roberts received a CIORA grant to develop an online knowledge translation platform for healthcare providers managing patients with rheumatic immune-related adverse events (Rh-irAEs): CanRIO.ca. This website is now used by rheumatologists and oncologists internationally and was awarded the CRA Practice Reflection Gold Medal in 2023. She has also received CIHR funding to investigate ICI-associated rheumatic toxicities using administrative health data and was selected for the esteemed CIHR Early Career Researcher in Cancer Award in 2025.
She collaborates closely with computer scientists and engineers to apply artificial intelligence to the evaluation and management of bone and joint diseases. These projects include computer vision models for opportunistic bone mineral density estimation from clinical CT scans, automated interpretation of musculoskeletal ultrasound, and detection of hand joint effusions using standard photographs and videos. Through funding from The Arthritis Society Canada, she is developing and deploying a large language model (LLM) to automate triage in rheumatology. She has also received CIHR funding to create a source-verified, rheumatology-specific LLM chatbot (“ChatRheum”) aimed at improving the safety and reliability of medical information provided to patients through AI tools.
The overarching goal of her research program is to use data-driven solutions to improve care for patients with bone and joint diseases.
Additional Resources
The biggest myth about osteoporosis – a condition that causes bones to weaken and fracture – is that it only affects older women. At least 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men will break a bone due to osteoporosis in their lifetime.
However, it is possible to reduce fracture risk by eating a healthy diet, getting appropriate amounts of vitamin D and calcium, and doing strength and posture training to prevent falls.
If you want to learn more about bone health, you’ve come to the right place. Review frequently asked questions about osteoporosis, videos, articles and more on this resources page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Osteoporosis Canada
British Columbia Coalition of Osteoporosis Physicians
Physicians Taking Osteoporosis Referrals in British Columbia
Mary Pack Arthritis Program Arthritis Classes
Northern Alberta Osteoporosis Program
Covenant Health Osteoporosis Program
Dr. David Hanley Osteoporosis Centre
24-Hour Movement Guidelines
Otago Exercise Program
Bone Fit
I START Tool
Finding Balance Alberta
MelioGuide
Dietitians of Canada
British Columbia's Age Forward Strategy
The Safe Living Guide: A Guide to Home Safety for Seniors
National Osteoporosis Foundation
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