A regional journey toward stronger bones and healthier ageing
Across the Asia Pacific, populations are ageing at an unprecedented rate. With longevity comes new opportunity, but also new responsibility. As life expectancy rises, osteoporosis and fragility fractures are emerging as some of the most urgent public health challenges of our time. Each fragility fracture is far more than a broken bone – it can alter a person’s life, diminishing independence, confidence, and overall well-being. Every fracture tells a story, reminding us that our systems of care must continue to evolve to prevent others from enduring the same loss.
For many years, colleagues across our region have shared a common vision: to ensure that ageing well includes living well, supported by strong bones, independent mobility, and community participation. It is within this shared spirit that Osteoporosis New Zealand (ONZ) has developed Stronger Together: A Collaborative Strategy for Bone Health in New Zealand, launched at Parliament in Wellington on 5th November 2025.
While written for a New Zealand audience, Stronger Together was designed with a broader purpose – to serve as a living example of how the principles that unite us across the Asia Pacific Consortium on Osteoporosis (APCO) can be translated into a national strategy that spans the entire life course.
From local action to regional relevance
By 2050, more than 40 percent of New Zealanders will be aged 50 years or over. Recognising that the burden of fragility fractures will grow dramatically without coordinated action, ONZ brought together clinicians, policymakers, and patient advocates to craft a strategy grounded in collaboration and evidence.
Stronger Together sets out seven objectives, ranging from best practice hip fracture care and secondary fracture prevention to strengthening primary fracture prevention, promoting bone health in midlife, and supporting optimal skeletal development during youth and pregnancy.
What makes the strategy distinctive is its life-course perspective – an understanding that bone health is shaped from infancy through older age, and that interventions at every stage can accumulate to transform population outcomes. This framing resonates strongly with the Asia Pacific region, where countries are at varying stages of demographic transition but share the same fundamental challenge: ensuring that longer lives are also healthier lives.
Partnership as the foundation for progress
The success of Stronger Together lies not only in its content but in its process. It reflects over a decade of collective work – through national registries, Fracture Liaison Service (FLS) implementation, and the establishment of clinical standards that allow benchmarking and quality improvement across the health system.
These initiatives were built in collaboration with many APCO partners and inspired by the same guiding principles that underpin APCO’s work: shared standards, multidisciplinary engagement, and alignment of clinical excellence with policy advocacy.
“The launch of Stronger Together marks a milestone not only for New Zealand but potentially for our entire region,” said Professor Manju Chandran, Chairperson of APCO. “It shows how the vision we have pursued together – integrated, evidence-based, and patient-centered bone health care – can be realized at national level. Importantly, it invites others across Asia Pacific to adapt, refine, and build upon this model within their own health systems.”
A framework designed to be shared
To encourage this exchange, Stronger Together has been released under a Creative Commons Attribution licence, allowing colleagues in other countries to freely adapt the structure, text, and tools for local use. The Stronger Together Pyramid and Call to Action provide an adaptable framework that can be localized to reflect each country’s health priorities, data landscape, and cultural context.
In practical terms, this means that a national osteoporosis society, Ministry of Health, or coalition could use Stronger Together as a template to develop a context-specific roadmap – one that links clinical standards, prevention initiatives, workforce education, and public engagement under a single coherent vision.
This approach aligns closely with the APCO Framework, which advocates for consistent standards of care and measurable quality improvement across our region. Together, they demonstrate that no single organization or country needs to start from scratch. Shared knowledge, adapted wisely, accelerates impact.
Collective voices, shared purpose
John Mulka, Executive Director at Osteoporosis New Zealand, emphasised that the process of developing Stronger Together was as important as the final document. “We see this strategy as an invitation, not a conclusion,” Mr. Mulka explained. “Our colleagues across Asia Pacific have been extraordinarily generous in sharing their experience and insights. By releasing Stronger Together openly, we hope to give something back to that community – to support the next phase of regional progress and mutual learning.”
This reciprocity captures the essence of the Asia Pacific approach to bone health improvement: collegial, adaptive, and committed to measurable outcomes. The lessons learned in New Zealand – particularly around registry development, integration of FLS within health services, and partnerships with funders and policymakers – may be directly relevant to other health systems in our region.
Stronger Together, in name and in practice
From the earliest days of APCO, New Zealand has been proud to contribute to a movement that transcends borders. The collaboration among our organisations has helped define what coordinated bone health policy can look like when guided by shared values and mutual respect.
“Both APCO and Osteoporosis New Zealand are built on the belief that we achieve more when we act collectively,” noted Adjunct Professor Paul Mitchell, ONZ Strategic Advisor and APCO Executive Committee Member. “Our friends across Asia Pacific are welcome to adapt and evolve the life-course approach outlined in Stronger Together to suit their national contexts. The challenges may differ, but our goal is the same – to prevent avoidable harm, extend healthy life expectancy, and strengthen communities through better bone health.”
A regional Call to Action
As we move into the next decade, the Asia Pacific region has an unparalleled opportunity to lead the world in systematic bone health care. By learning from one another and sharing practical tools, we can turn policy into practice and aspiration into measurable progress.
Stronger Together stands as one contribution to this collective effort – a blueprint not just for New Zealand, but for any nation determined to ensure that its people, at every stage of life, can live longer, healthier, and stronger lives.
The full strategy, details of the Parliamentary launch, and a very encouraging message of support from the Prime Minister of New Zealand are available from https://osteoporosis.org.nz/news-research/.
