American Joint Replacement Registry Reaches Two Million Mark

The world’s largest national registry of hip and knee joint replacements—the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR)—has reached an important milestone of two million entries (procedural count). The AJRR, part of American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ (AAOS) Registry Program, includes data from almost 1,400 U.S. medical institutions and more than 11,000 participating surgeons in every state, the District of Columbia and ambulatory surgery centers (ASC).

“This is an incredible milestone for the AJRR. We are thrilled to see so much enthusiasm from our participating sites to contribute actionable data to this important orthopaedic Registry,” said David D. Lewallen, M.D., one of the founding leaders of the AJRR and an orthopedic surgeon at Mayo Clinic. “AJRR not only helps orthopaedic surgeons review their cases against a growing list of national statistics and analytics, but its interactive abilities help users filter data in new and meaningful ways identifying important practice changes that can benefit millions of American patients going forward.”

Daniel J. Berry, M.D., founding leader and immediate past chair of the AAOS Registries Oversight Committee and an orthopedic surgeon at Mayo Clinic, added, “The AJRR is a powerful tool that is guiding the future of hip and knee joint replacements. As a participant in each of the AAOS registries, it’s exciting to see the AJRR achieve this milestone and fuel momentum that is helping improve orthopaedic outcomes in this country.”

Using the AJRR, physicians and facilities can compare procedure performance on an individual, site, and system level through dashboards and reports which provide information on national benchmarks and methods. The system offers tools to reduce complications and revision rates, with surveillance for poorly performing implants, and information on patient-reported outcomes (PROMs).

Commenting on their activities during the pandemic was Bryan D. Springer, M.D., chair of the AJRR Steering Committee, who told OTW, “The last 12 months have seen many challenges. But from the challenges come many opportunities. I think we would all agree that the last seven months dealing with COVID-19 has been especially challenging across organizations. The American Joint Replacement Registry has been no exception.”

“Fortunately, we have seen our participation continue to increase as the interest and importance of being in a national registry continues to be realized from a quality, bench marking and research standpoint. We have been able to add COVID-19 as a preoperative comorbidity, as well as a reason for re-admission to the registry data set. This will ultimately help us determine the impact that this pandemic has had on total joint arthroplasty during this time and moving forward.”

“We continued to be challenged in finding unique opportunities for hospitals and surgeons to participate in the registry. However, our success in doing this continues to grow as evidenced by reaching 2 million total joint procedures in the AJRR. We continue to face uncertain times, but are confident in our growth and the direction we are heading.”

Concerning future plans for the registry, Dr. Springer talks of registry synergy, saying to OTW, “Our future direction for the registry is several fold. On a broad scale, we continue to developed the AAOS family of registries and will be able to build on the synergy that all of the registries have with each other. Our number one goal continues to be the monitoring and safety of implants to ensure the best outcome for our patients. We continue to enhance our patient-reported outcome metrics platform to be able to fully demonstrate the impact that total joint replacement has on our patients lives.”