Bone mineral density (BMD) is a measure of how dense your bones are. It is typically measured in your spine, hip and/or forearm. When significant, low bone mineral density is referred to as osteoporosis. People with low BMD may be at increased risk of fracture which is associated with significant harm. Accurately measuring BMD requires a special test called a DXA (pronounced DEXA) scan. After measuring your BMD, your physician will be able to discuss strategies to slow or prevent the loss of BMD.
Rho is a Health Canada-approved software medical device that analyzes a standard x-ray using artificial intelligence, and lets your healthcare provider know if you are likely to have low BMD.
Rho analyzes an x-ray that has already been acquired. It takes the opportunity to assess your bone health while you are undergoing x-ray for another medical indication (i.e. cough, pain). It provides bonus information that a radiologist would not typically be able to see with their own eyes.
If you are having an x-ray of the chest, pelvis, knee, lumbar spine, thoracic spine, or hand and are over the age of 50, Rho will automatically screen it as soon as your x-ray is performed, and provide results to your radiologist to consider while they are reviewing your x-ray. If you have requested Rho to analyze your x-ray through a patient imaging portal, it will analyze your x-ray and provide the report to you. We encourage you to discuss the report with your healthcare provider.
The output of Rho is a report that is provided to the radiologist when they are reviewing your x-ray. The report presents a Rho Score between 1 and 10, where 1 is less likely to have low BMD and 10 is more likely. The radiologist can choose to include this finding in their report of your x-ray. This information will give your healthcare provider insight into your bone health and may prompt additional screening measures such as a fracture risk questionnaire. If you have accessed Rho through a patient imaging portal, you can share your report with your healthcare provider. This information will give your healthcare provider insight into your bone health and may prompt additional screening measures such as a fracture risk questionnaire.
Since Rho is a technology that analyzes an x-ray that has already been acquired, there is no additional radiation risk to you. If you are at increased risk for low BMD, your healthcare provider may ask you a series of questions to assess your risk of fracture and may recommend that you have a different type of x-ray (DXA) that includes a very low dose of radiation (about the same amount as you get by just living on earth for a few days). If you are found to have low BMD or are at increased risk of future fracture, there are treatment and prevention options including lifestyle modification and pharmaceutical interventions.
If Rho identifies that you are at risk of low BMD, and your healthcare provider is not already aware, then this early detection could enable earlier initiation of preventative or treatment strategies to help maintain bone health and prevent future fractures.
No. Rho is installed at healthcare institutions and analyzes x-rays without transferring any information to the manufacturer or other third-parties. If you accessed Rho through a patient imaging portal, the x-ray was not transferred, the patient imaging portal analyzes it on their server using our software.
Rho is currently being utilized at the following institutions:
Rho is not the “gold standard” test to assess low bone mineral density. It does its best to take advantage of the image in the x-ray to determine if you are at risk of low BMD. The hope is that it will help you and your doctor discuss bone health with time to implement treatment or prevention strategies.
- If you analyze the same x-ray twice, you will get the same Rho Score.
- If you analyze two different x-rays of the same body part, 90% of the time your Rho Scores will differ by 1 or not at all.
- If you analyze two different body parts, 90% of the time your Rho Scores will differ by 2, 1, or not at all. Typically, bone loss occurs at roughly the same rate throughout your bones, but everyone is different, and it is possible that two body parts have different amounts of bone loss.
Whatever the case may be, we encourage you to discuss your bone health with your care provider. If you or your care provider are concerned, they may consider sending you for the “gold standard” test, which is a different type of x-ray (called a DXA) that includes a very low dose of radiation (about the same amount as you get by just living on earth for a few days). If the DXA test shows you have low BMD or are at increased risk of future fracture, there are treatment and prevention options including lifestyle modification and pharmaceutical interventions.
