DXA Reporting for Clinicians - Level 7

About this module

You will be an experienced health professional working in an osteoporosis or DXA service that is either currently reporting on DXA scans or are about to commence.

This module has been developed to give you the knowledge and skills to support your professional role in DXA reporting. It is not a professional accreditation of competency. It is evidence of having addressed the learning needs in relation to DXA reporting, therefore, it remains necessary to maintain currency and safe clinical practice as required by local clinical governance procedures.

The Department of Health emphasises the need for a flexible and adaptable workforce by the transfer of skills between professional groups and for NHS employers to empower appropriately trained personnel to undertake a wider range of clinical roles. As a result, health care professionals from a number of disciplines are now expanding their respective roles, such as; the right to make and receive referrals, independently assess, treat, admit and discharge patients, order and interpret investigations, including bone density (BMD) and vertebral fracture assessment (VFA) results from dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). 

This module will enable you, regardless of your health profession, to develop and enhance your practice as part of a multi-professional strategy and to utilise a systematic approach to reporting BMD and VFA results from DXA scans.

You will work closely with a service based Mentor and the Module team to consistently and independently report DXA scans and review the role of vertebral fracture assessment. 

You will review both technical aspects of bone densitometry assessment and patient management in relation to national guidance:

• Normal and osteoporotic appearances on DXA images, including an understanding of normal variants and artefacts and confounding factors, such as patient positioning
• Normal ranges and the clinical risk factors that affect BMD
• Treatment protocols, treatment thresholds for different patient groups and the effect of treatment on BMD results.  The significance of changes in DXA results with time and the implications for treatment
• Common pitfalls of interpreting DXA scan results.
• The radiographic appearance of vertebral fracture on lateral DXA images and quantitative and semi-quantitative vertebral fracture assessment, including fracture risk assessment
• Records and record keeping, Terminology and writing reports, including the ISCD reporting requirements, Governance Framework and Radiation Protection and IRMER.