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Osteoporosis is a devastating disease that affects more than 10 million people in the US alone.

Annual costs of treating Osteoporosis are in excess of $13.5 billion per annum. According to the US Surgeon General’s Report by the year 2020 half of all Americans older than 50 years will be at risk of an osteoporotic fragility fracture. Osteoporosis is characterised by low bone mass and structural deterioration of bone, leading to bone fragility and an increased tendency to fracture. Fracture resistance is determined by the strength of the bone. The most frequently used clinical indication of osteoporosis and fracture risk is bone mineral density (BMD) which is also the most readily accessible non-invasive measure of bone mineral content.

X-ray based methods have been used extensively for many years offering information on the bone geometry and, to some extent, its substructure geometry together with some information of general bone density. Dual Energy X-ray Absortiometry, or DEXA, is today's established standard. Another useful technique is that of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which can provide very detailed information upon the internal structure of the bone tissue. However, both X-ray and MRI techniques are required to be performed by trained staff and involve large, expensive hardware which are usually only available in well equipped laboratories and hospitals. Electrical signals are applied to a number of regions of the human body, including a hip, heel, selected vertebrae or to a forearm, enabling the application of a point-of-care impedance method.