Registry has data on 19,000 TJA procedures and plans for more growth (AAOS)
Momentum is building,” said David G. Lewallen, MD, chair of the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR) board of directors, during an AJRR informational session at the 2012 AAOS Annual Meeting. “Multiple entities have committed to the effort.”
Reflecting on “lessons learned,” Dr. Lewallen and the other registry representatives outlined the AJRR’s plans to expand the registry’s reach and recruit more institutions to participate.
Lessons from the pilot program
Kevin J. Bozic, MD, MBA, a member of the AJRR board of directors, headed up the work group evaluating the results of the pilot program completed in August 2011 that yielded data on more than 3,600 TJA procedures. The AJRR is currently focused on collecting level-one data including basic identifying information on patients, surgeons, hospitals, and procedures.
“We learned a lot about the challenges institutions faced,” he said, referring to feedback from the pilot sites on patient privacy. “Certainly, data encryption is a concern to everyone.”
A particularly difficult issue, he said, involves patient identifiers.
“The goal of registries ...
