Having insight means developing deeper understanding, which is exactly how AAOS practice performance tools can add value to your practice and improve the quality of your patient care. AAOS provides the resources you need to stay current with the latest evidence-based orthopaedic practices, as well as comparative data to help you measure and assess your performance. Some of the tools are outlined here.

AAOS Registry Program

The Registry Program supports the AAOS mission to serve its profession and to provide the highest-quality musculoskeletal care by defining quality in a value-based healthcare landscape.

The American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR) is the world’s largest national registry of hip and knee replacement data based on annual procedural count, with more than 1.6 million procedures contained in its database. AJRR enables orthopaedic surgeons and healthcare providers to benchmark performance, reduce complication and revision rates, and enhance patient experiences. AJRR was selected as The Joint Commission’s sole registry pathway supporting Advanced Total Hip and Total Knee Certification.

AAOS launched the Musculoskeletal Tumor Registry Pilot at the end of 2018, in conjunction with the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society, to collect data about tumor procedures. The feasibility study is designed to capture information about orthopaedic oncology in a structured, scalable manner.

The Shoulder & Elbow Registry also launched in 2018 and collects U.S. shoulder and elbow procedural data to establish survivorship curves, track revisions, benchmark risk-adjusted data, and provide greater context to comparisons of patient outcomes.

Registry Analytics Institute™ provides a resource for clinicians and clinician-scientists to further understand and improve orthopaedic and musculoskeletal care. The institute gives clinicians and clinician-scientists the opportunity to submit proposals to access analytic insights contained within its various registries. Successful applicants gain data to examine outcomes related to orthopaedics.

To enroll in the AAOS Registry Program, email RegistryEngagement@aaos.org or call 847-292-0530.

AAOS RegistryInsights®

All AAOS registries are built on the AAOS Registry-
Insights technology platform, which provides rich information through online dashboards and reports to participating institutions. RegistryInsights also offers a portal for implementation and reporting of patient surveys, which is an important tool in quality initiatives, accreditation requirements, and payer programs.

The Surgeon Dashboards were recently added and allow members to view individualized practice data, including procedural volume, patient demographics, revision burden, and patient-reported outcome (PRO) information. Surgeons also can view their postoperative data, including total linked postoperative visits and average length of stay, both of which can be compared to national benchmarks.

Furthermore, because AAOS’ Registry Program is approved by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (ABOS), accessing dashboards may help count toward Self-assessment Exam credits for ABOS Maintenance of Certification Part II.

The Academy is excited to provide Surgeon Dashboards at no additional cost to participating sites, and enrollment is a simple process. As part of this, AAOS will work with your site to make sure it also has a license to its data, which includes institution-level dashboards and a technology solution to administer and manage PRO measurement surveys.

Quality resources

Complementing the registries are trusted quality resources that provide best and evidence-based practices. Key among them are:

• OrthoGuidelines App: Access all AAOS clinical practice guidelines, appropriate use criteria (AUC), and informative videos from your handheld device with this app. You can navigate all published guidelines by keyword, specialty, orthopaedic disease, strength of evidence, and stage of care.
• Clinician Checklists: These are developed via the AUC process and include:
  • ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) Reconstruction Surgery: Patient Postoperative Rehabilitation Checklist
  • ACL Reconstruction Surgery: Patient Return-to-Play Checklist
  • Hip Fractures in the Elderly: Preoperative Checklist
  • Hip Fractures in the Elderly: Perioperative Prevention of Future Fractures Checklist
• Patient Safety Toolkits: These are designed to help increase safe practices and include the following:
  • The Pain Relief Toolkit has discussion guides; a preoperative screening questionnaire; and guidelines for the safe use, storage, and disposal of opioids and other prescriptions.
  • The Surgical Risk Reduction Toolkit is designed to mitigate the risk factors that have been demonstrated to contribute to complications. The toolkit includes a full review of major surgical risk factors; a temporal approach to addressing pre-, intra-, and postoperative risk factors; and multilayered content that presents general and more detailed guides to help reduce risk.

To learn more about AAOS Registries and quality initiatives, visit aaos.org/quality.