America’s Joint Registry Issues First Report

Thanks to the release of the first round of data from the American Joint Replacement Registry the United States is beginning to catch up with the UK and Australia who have had such registries for many years. In its report, Modern Healthcare noted that the registry is the “first step toward compiling data that could assist providers with assessing how medical devices perform.”

Hip and knee joint replacements are among the most performed surgeries in the U.S. The registry data on these replacements include information from only 120 hospitals or 383 hospital participants which represent approximately 4.5% of joint replacements that were done in 2013. The data reflects patients with both private insurance and Medicare coverage. For each surgery the registry records the implant type and its lot number. The Modern Healthcare report states that the registry has a goal of tracking 90% of the hip and knee surgeries performed in the U.S.

Data collected to date reveals that patients who had knee replacement surgeries had an average age of 66.7 while those who had hip surgeries were, on average, 67.6 years old. The Modern Healthcare writer indicated that the registry managers plan to collect more complex data in future years.