David is the General Secretary of the Fragility Fracture Network (FFN) – a global organisation dedicated to better prevention and management of fractures caused by a combination of osteoporosis and falls. Both of these are strongly age-related and fragility fractures are therefore increasing in frequency to an alarming extent, especially in emerging economies. He is a retired professor of orthopaedics, who played a leading role in developing ‘orthogeriatric’ co-management of patients with fragility fractures in the UK, including secondary prevention to reduce the future incidence of hip fractures in particular, which rob older people of their independence. That experience led him to initiate the FFN as its founding president. The FFN, in partnership with sister organisations, published last year a Call to Action, which spells out what needs to be done globally to meet this huge challenge to healthy ageing.
