AAOS Registry Program Blog

July is Sarcoma Awareness Month. Few people can tell you that sarcoma is a rare cancer of the soft tissue and bone with over 70 subtypes. And even advocacy groups call it “a forgotten cancer.” But for the tens of thousands of Americans living with sarcoma, sarcoma isn’t rare: it’s a daily reality.

Sarcoma deserves recognition 365 days a year, not just during July.

The AAOS announced the Fracture & Trauma Registry (FTR) will now be powered by PatientIQ. This new partnership will offer healthcare institutions a turnkey solution for FTR participation, thus reducing barriers to tracking evidence-based practices and advancing the delivery of musculoskeletal care. PatientIQ will integrate its cloud-based platform directly with FTR participants’ electronic health record (EHR) to provide a seamless experience that simplifies the ability to collect and submit outcomes data. PatientIQ is a leading healthcare technology company that collects and derives actionable insights from outcomes data at scale. 

The American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR), the cornerstone of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) Registry Program, is proud to present its 2022 Annual Report on hip and knee arthroplasty procedural trends and patient outcomes. The ninth annual report demonstrates an overall cumulative procedural volume growth of 14% compared to the previous year and includes over 2.8 million hip and knee procedures since 2012 from over 1,250 hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), and private practice groups submitting data.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) is pleased to announce the availability of the Shoulder & Elbow Registry (SER) 2022 Annual Report. This is the third SER Annual Report and reflects data related to procedures performed at SER participating institutions between 2015 and 2021. The identification and analysis of relevant and impactful data helps to improve the quality of patient care as it relates to the upper extremity by tracking procedural trends and revisions and supporting orthopaedic care and best practices. The report analyzes 17,617 patient procedures from 299 surgeons at 140 participating facilities including hospitals, private practices, and ambulatory surgery centers spanning 40 states across the US.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) announced Exactech as the latest industry sponsor of the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR). Support from Exactech, a global medical device company that develops and markets joint replacement, implants, surgical instruments and smart technologies, allows the AJRR to further invest in the technology and science that is needed to evolve the Registry and better meet the needs of all major stakeholders, including physicians, patients, payors, regulatory groups, and industry partners.

AAOS and Cohere Health have formed a partnership to improve the prior authorization process (PA) for musculoskeletal care on a national scale. Recently, we co-authored a whitepaper outlining how combining Cohere's technology and AAOS's clinical expertise is transforming the historically burdensome PA process into a strategic asset for health plans, enabling better relationships with providers and improving patient outcomes without delays.

The members of the International Society of Arthroplasty Registries (ISAR) have a shared purpose of improving outcomes for individuals receiving hip and knee replacement surgeries worldwide. The focus of the society is to motivate worldwide cooperation to share medical device information. These collective efforts will assist in enhancing the quality of local registries and expanding the capacity of data-use related projects. The society is involved in the development of frameworks to encourage collaborative activities and provide a support network for established and developing registries. The AAOS American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR) is a member of ISAR and participates at the Annual International Congress of Arthroplasty Registries each year.

The following AJRR data-based abstracts were accepted at the 10th Annual Virtual International Congress of Arthroplasty Registries in 2021. Additionally, this was the first year that an AAOS staff member presented at the congress regarding the progress of the International Prosthesis Library.

This article first appeared in the February issue of AAOS Now, the monthly news magazine of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). 

For the AAOS Registry Program, 2021 was a year of significant expansion and noteworthy achievements, as it continued its growth trajectory and introduced several new visual and analytical enhancements.

“AAOS registries have grown and matured considerably over the past four years,” said AAOS Registry Oversight Committee Chair William J. Maloney, MD, FAAOS. “With more than 2.5 million procedures collected from five registries, the AAOS Registry Program has made large strides toward its mission to improve orthopaedic care through the collection, analysis, and reporting of actionable data.”

Pick Up Your Copy of the New AJRR Annual Report on November 12th 

The American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) 2021 Annual Meeting is offering an outstanding educational program. Qualified attendees can earn a maximum of 18 AMA PRA category 1 Credits. The American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR), the official registry of AAHKS, is looking forward to seeing you in Dallas, Texas on November 11-14, 2021.

This article first appeared in the December issue of AAOS Now, the monthly news magazine of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).

A study that sought to determine what factors predict total joint arthroplasty (TJA) outcomes at one year found that among patients in the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR) for whom patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) had been recorded, preoperative PROMs, especially physical function subscores, predicted improvement at one year.