Mrs Solange Bernardo, BSN, has been the Fracture Liaison Nurse at AIMSS/Western Health since 2016. Since joining the team at AIMSS, Ms Bernardo has participated in care planning for more than 3,000 patients who have suffered a fall or a fracture.

Solange coordinates our Falls and Fracture Clinic a multidisciplinary medically led clinic which provide patients with a comprehensive state-of-the-art assessment on their risks of falls and fractures where non-pharmacological and pharmacological interventions are provided to prevent new or recurrent episodes of falls or osteoporotic fractures. She is also the local Chief Investigator for the Australian and New Zealand Hip Fracture Registry at Western Health.

She has also shared several continuing medical education programs with our local GPs and practice Nurses in areas such as falls and fracture prevention, use of vitamin D and calcium supplements, and increasing treatment compliance by osteoporotic patients.

The Fracture Liaison Service lead by Solange was awarded with silver by International Osteoporosis Foundation a second higher achievement for best care Practice. Western Health Fracture Liaison Service is placed in the world map of “Capture the Fracture Program”

http://www.capturethefracture.org/map-of-best-practice.

In 2019, Solange was the recipient of the prestigious Betsy Love McClung, FN, MN Travel Grant from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR), which recognises the best FLS in the world. Ms Bernardo has several publications with the AIMSS team and is a regular presenter at our scientific meetings.

She is also a research assistant with the University of Melbourne since 2019, a co-investigator on a Southern Star Research on Estimating Short-Term Indirect Cost and Physical Functioning Burden Associated with Osteoporotic Fractures and a Co-investigator on clinical research trial of in-hospital hip protector study one of the first in Victoria.