Better bone health focus of new chair

Hamilton, ON – McMaster University has created a new endowed research chair which will promote education and research in osteoporosis and osteoarthritis.

The Alliance for Better Bone Health Chair in Rheumatology will be held by Dr Jonathan (Rick) Adachi, 50, a professor of medicine in the Michael G DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University, director of the Hamilton Arthritis Centre, and head of rheumatology at St Joseph’s Healthcare, Hamilton.

The chair is being supported by the Alliance for Better Bone Health, a partnership between P&G Pharmaceuticals and the Sanofi Aventis group.

“Currently we are studying the architecture of bone in normal and osteoporotic individuals. By understanding the underlying structural design of bone, we may be able to better predict who will fracture,” says Dr Adachi. “With osteoporosis, we are interested in seeing the effects of different therapies on bone architecture. This may be important in explaining the differences seen in fracture rate reduction. This research is currently being done with peripheral CT scanning and peripheral MRI.

“The architecture of subchondral bone may also be important in explaining the development of osteoarthritis. At present, we are examining this hypothesis in the osteoarthritis research program. This has been examined by using peripheral MRI, texture analysis of X-rays and through peripheral CT scanning.”

A graduate of McMaster’s medical program (1979), and a specialist in internal medicine (1983) and rheumatology (1984), Dr Adachi is a member of Osteoporosis Canada and the International Osteoporosis Foundation. He has conducted many clinical trials in osteoporosis and osteoarthritis and has published extensively on a wide variety of therapies for the prevention and treatment of corticosteroid-induced osteoporosis.

He has co-authored many systematic reviews of a wide variety of osteoporosis therapies and has participated in the development of guidelines for the treatment of primary and corticosteroid-induced osteoporosis in Canada.