Bone Matrix
One of our favorite movies is “The Matrix.” It is a science fiction movie that is based on the premise that we are all living our daily lives unaware that we are actually trapped in a virtual reality world – “The Matrix,” and only a few individuals who had gained knowledge and became aware of this situation, were fighting against the subversive forces to make everyone aware of the reality that they were in and to defeat those forces with the weapon of knowledge.
In the movie, to become “aware” an individual needed to make a choice between two pills – a red pill and a blue pill. One pill allowed the individual to return to the “Matrix” and remain unaware of the facts of the world that affected them; the other pill would “awaken” them to the reality of what was really happening and allow them to gain the knowledge needed to take on the challenges that faced them.
By naming our bone health program The Bone Matrix we were not only name-playing on the fact that a healthy bone has to have a healthy bone matrix, but we were also following the theme of the movie. We are physicians (orthopedic surgeons) who for many years have fixed broken bones, many of them fragility fractures. When we became aware of the lack of knowledge that our patients had concerning their bone health therefore, putting themselves at risk of fracturing at some point in their lives, we now are focusing our practices on Bone Health and keeping our patients from fracturing in the first place.
Although The Bone Matrix may not sound as exciting as the movie “The Matrix,” we feel that what we are doing is just as exciting and important. As in the movie, we have taken upon ourselves the responsibility of educating our patients and our community about the importance of Bone Health. We want everyone to know that bone health should not be ignored and taken for granted, because at some point the reality of the decision to ignore bone health and keep on living daily lives status quo and without taking action will very likely result in a life altering event – a fragility fracture due to osteoporosis and poor bone quality. We have made it our goal to make everyone aware and spread the knowledge to maintain high quality bone health!
The Bone Matrix – THE TEAM:
Dr. Andy Bush is a Board-Certified Orthopedic Surgeon currently practicing in a solo general orthopedic practice – Central Carolina Orthopedic Associates.
James Hooker, RT and Clinical Manager, Trained in EchoS and REMS Testing – Central Carolina Orthopedic Associates
Cindy McAuley, Bone Health Coordinator and Social Media Administrator – Central Carolina Orthopedic Associates
In consultation with Dr. Kim Zambito, Board-Certified and Fellowship-trained Orthopedic Hand Surgeon.
The Bone Matrix – THE MISSION:
The mission of The Bone Matrix is to reduce the number of fragility fractures. We plan to take on this mission by direct patient assessment with the goal of bone health treatment planning as well as community bone health education, based on established standards of medical care and academically accepted knowledge with the goal of reducing the risk of a member of the community sustaining a fragility fracture.
Our goal is to reduce fracture risk and ultimately Fracture Prevention!
Here is the link to our REMS Echolight Discussion Group page: