AAOS Registry Program Blog

What to Expect - And Helpful Advice

Guest Blogger:
Richard F. Seiden, Esq.

In this article, the AAOS Registry Program’s Public Advisory Board (PAB) member Richard Seiden shares his personal experience as a joint replacement surgery patient (he’s had hip replacements, knee replacements, and shoulder replacements). Mr. Seiden offers patients with joint issues helpful advice to better prepare for dealing with pre-, day-of-, and post-surgical needs. This article is not a substitute for physician recommendations.

The mission of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) Registry Program is to improve orthopaedic care through the collection, analysis, and reporting of actionable data. The Program's vision goes beyond hips and knees to include additional anatomic registries. Beginning with the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR), the AAOS Registry Program is managed by AAOS as a multi-stakeholder participation model. Stakeholders include representatives from the orthopaedic surgeon community, device manufacturers, hospitals, private payers, and the public. The AAOS Registry Program will continue AJRR public advisory best practices that help enhance the value of registries by ensuring a public voice in data collection, reporting, and utilization activities.

The voice of the patient is evident in the efforts of the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR) largely because of contributions from the Public Advisory Board (PAB). The mission of the PAB is to improve the value of AJRR by even more effectively ensuring a public voice in the Registry's hip and knee replacement data collection, reporting, and utilization activities. Each year, PAB members play an important role in compiling a Report to the Public About Hip and Knee Replacements. The Report's registry-driven, evidence-based content is invaluable in answering the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) from patients and their families. Well-informed patients, with current information, will seek better care and gain better outcomes.

This week's blog focuses on the Report to the Public's answers to patients' FAQs. As a complement to the Report, the blog also features Richard Seiden's account of his personal joint replacement experience and the general patient advice he is sharing through an article he recently authored. He has been a PAB member since 2016.

Last month we presented a blog series entitled How to Build a Patient-Reported Outcomes Program (PRO) for Hip and Knee Arthroplasty. Reporting patient outcomes occurs in the final phases of a long treatment and rehabilitation process. Smart patient and clinical decision making beforehand will increase the likelihood of successful outcomes. To maximize the benefit of medical information exchange between patients and their health care providers, patient education is critical. Not all proactive patient education occurs in the doctor's office, so how can you help?