AAOS Registry Program Blog

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

2020 was a year like no other, with the healthcare system completely upended along with the rest of society by COVID-19. But for the AAOS Registry Program, it was nonetheless a year of growth and accomplishment.

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

The Annual Report of the Academy’s American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR), released at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Knee and Hip Surgeons (AAHKS) in November 2020, tells the story of a year marked by a multitude of successes and growth for AJRR.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) released a new report based on clinical data from hip and knee arthroplasty patient outcomes as part of the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR), the largest orthopaedic registry in the world based on annual procedures submitted. Based on the sixth AJRR Annual Report on hip and knee arthroplasty data, the new resource highlights the information that is most relevant for patients and the public. It aims to help those outside the orthopaedic profession learn more about hip and knee replacement procedures and better understand how registry data can help to inform decisions and improve patient care.

The American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR), the cornerstone of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) Registry Program, released its 2020 Annual Report on hip and knee arthroplasty patient outcomes. AJRR is the largest orthopaedic registry in the world based on annual procedures submitted, and the analysis provides insight into U.S. hip and knee arthroplasty practice. The Annual Report, released in conjunction with the first day of the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons’ (AAHKS) 2020 Annual Meeting, includes findings from 1,897,050 hip and knee arthroplasty procedures performed between 2012 and 2019, representing an overall cumulative procedural volume growth of 24.4% compared to the previous year.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) announced a plan to launch a Fracture & Trauma Registry (FTR) and begin collecting data on five of the more common fractures in the United States. The FTR marks the first AAOS Registry built on a synergistic approach where collaborative modules will be available across the RegistryInsights® platform, offering expanded, crossover benefits to AAOS Registry Program participants. The FTR will begin with a limited invitation to key sites in late 2020 with full participant enrollment in 2021.

The AAOS Shoulder & Elbow Registry (SER) recently received the Shoulder Arthroplasty Predictive (SHARP) Model, a tool designed to help surgeons predict post-operative shoulder arthroplasty outcomes, from Campbell Clinic Orthopaedics, a leader in musculoskeletal care and sports medicine. The SHARP Model, which is available exclusively to current and future SER participants, helps guide preoperative, evidence-based conversations between surgeons and patients and set appropriate expectations around surgical outcomes based on a patient’s individual health.

Guest Blogger: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) Registry Program Committee Member Richard Seiden

Richard Seiden is the AAOS Registry Program Public Advisory Board (PAB) Chair and the PAB Representative on the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR) and Shoulder & Elbow Registry (SER) Steering Committees. In this blog, he shares his personal experience as a joint replacement surgery patient (he’s had hip replacements, knee replacements, and shoulder replacements). Mr. Seiden offers patients helpful advice to better prepare for dealing with post-surgery needs. He indicated that he hopes sharing his experience will be helpful to other patients, but his advice is not a substitute for consulting with your physician.

As an arthritis patient who has had multiple joint replacement surgeries, I try to turn my experiences with a disease or a treatment into “lessons learned” from which others can benefit. In particular, I like to think that my own outcomes from joint replacement surgeries can be the basis for further education for other patients, physicians or surgeons, and others in the health care delivery system. I believe that each patient’s “lived experience” through surgery and recovery should be added to a collection of data and knowledge of similar procedures.

Although these may not be the only ways to accomplish the “lessons learned” objective, there are two principal ways in which patients can make a contribution to “libraries” of patient experiences, through (1) Registries, and (b) Patient-Reported Outcomes or “PROs.”

The OrthoForum, a nationwide network of privately owned orthopaedic practices known for its pillars of benchmarking, networking, innovation and advocacy, announced a collaboration with the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), naming the AAOS Registry Program as the organization’s recommended registries for its members. The four registries include the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR), the Shoulder & Elbow Registry, the Musculoskeletal Tumor Registry, and the American Spine Registry, which is a collaboration with the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and AAOS. All of the AAOS registries support the OrthoForum’s mission of providing orthopaedic group practices with access to the latest best practices and benchmarking tools needed to advance their local market presence.

NuVasive, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUVA), a leader in spine technology innovation, focused on transforming spine surgery with minimally disruptive, procedurally integrated solutions, and the American Spine Registry (ASR), a national quality improvement registry for spine care, announced that they have entered into a multi-year sponsorship to improve the future of spine surgery through data-driven outcomes. ASR is a collaboration between the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) and this arrangement with NuVasive marks the first-of-its-kind for the ASR, providing industry support to expand its data collection platform.

Sarcoma is often referred to as the 'forgotten cancer' and this July during National Sarcoma Awareness Month, the AAOS and the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society (MSTS) join forces to bring you some uplifting patient/surgeon stories. Together, we are working towards analyzing data to aid in finding a cure for sarcoma.