Spine Study Identifies Predictors of Chronic Narcotic Use

Terry Stanton

Using a prediction model, researchers were able to identify, with nearly 80 percent accuracy, which patients undergoing thoracolumbar spine surgery would still be taking narcotics two years postoperatively. The prospective, observational study, presented during the North American Spine Society Annual Meeting by Erin Bigney, MA, of Canada East Spine Centre, used the Canadian Spine Outcomes and Research Network data alongside validated psychological measures.

Study: Half of Neck Surgery Readmissions Are Not Related to Surgical Site

Terry Stanton

A study presented at the North American Spine Society Annual Meeting in Los Angeles found that among patients undergoing one- or two-level anterior cervical diskectomy and fusion (ACDF), 3 percent were readmitted within 30 days of surgery, and half of those readmissions were unrelated to neck surgery. David C.

Registry Round-up: A Look Back at a Very Good Year

Terry Stanton

It’s been a year of milestones and trailblazing accomplishments for the AAOS registry program. In its 2018 annual report, having completed its reintegration within AAOS, the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR) tallied 1,186,955 procedures from 1,067 institutions from 2012 to 2017, establishing the AJRR as the largest orthopaedic registry by annual procedure count.

AAOS Hip Fracture Time-to-surgery Performance Measure Passes First CMS Test

Steve Olson, MD; Quinn Hall, MHA

Hip fractures in older patients have been an increasingly important health concern in the United States, as life expectancy in the country continues to rise. In April, AAOS published a performance measure (PM) to encourage hip fracture surgery within 48 hours of admission for patients 65 years of age or older. The PM stems from the AAOS evidence-based clinical practice guideline (CPG) on Management of Hip Fractures in the Elderly, which was published in 2014.

NESTcc Announces the First Round of Real-world Evidence Test-cases

The National Evaluation System for Health Technology Coordinating Center (NESTcc), an initiative of the Medical Device Innovation Consortium (MDIC), announced the first round of NESTcc test-cases that address topics of high priority from the medical device industry using real-world data and evidence.

How Would a Computer Diagnose Arthritis on a Radiograph?

Kenneth Urish, MD, PhD, FAAOS; Alan M. Reznik, MD, MBA, FAAOS

The first article in this series (“Understanding the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Orthopaedic Surgery,” AAOS Now, September 2018) provided an overview of the history of artificial intelligence (AI) and a few general concepts regarding how AI problems are approached. Inevitably, the question becomes: Is it possible to replace doctors with AI machines?