Deciding how long to take bisphosphonate medicines
Official title: Calculator for Length of Use of Bisphosphonates (CLUB)
Funded at Augusta University · NIH-11384034 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project will create a calculator to help older adults and their doctors decide how long to take bisphosphonates to lower fracture risk while accounting for rare side effects.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Augusta University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Augusta, United States) |
| Project start | September 15, 2022 |
| Project end | June 30, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $170,170 |
| NIH project number | 3R01AG079118-04S1 |
| Project ID | NIH-11384034 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Adults taking or considering oral or intravenous bisphosphonates for osteoporosis, especially people aged 65 and older, are the main focus for this work.
✕Less likely to help
People who are not using bisphosphonates, whose bone health issues are unrelated to osteoporosis, or who need urgent fracture treatment may not benefit directly from the calculator.
What this research studies
Researchers will combine large, diverse medical records and patient data to estimate how fracture risk and rare side effects change with different lengths of bisphosphonate use. They will build a user-friendly calculator that uses personal information—such as age, sex, race, health conditions, and treatment history—to produce individualized benefit and harm estimates. The tool will be developed by a multidisciplinary team and tested against real-world outcomes to improve its accuracy. If reliable, clinicians could use the calculator to guide decisions about continuing treatment or taking a drug holiday.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: It could give patients and clinicians personalized risk estimates to make safer, more tailored decisions about starting, continuing, or pausing bisphosphonate therapy.
How similar studies have gone: Prior studies show bisphosphonates prevent fractures but provide limited evidence on optimal treatment length, so this personalized calculator approach is relatively new.
Where this research is happening
-
Augusta University
Augusta, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Carbone, Laura D — Augusta University
- Study coordinator: Carbone, Laura D
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.