On Dec. 20, 2010, St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Conn., the first pilot site for the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR), submitted the first data on arthroplasty patients. Local surgeon champion Courtland G. Lewis, MD, and staff champion Stephanie Caminiti helped make this possible.

St. Francis is one of 15 pilot sites that will be brought online during the next several weeks and that will submit hip and knee replacement data over the next several months. After validating the pilot data and analyzing the challenges, successes, problems, and work processes associated with submission of data, the AJRR will finalize general processes for expanding operations to other hospitals in the United States.

The current plan calls for rapid expansion of the number of participating institutions once general operations begin later in 2011. The current goal is to achieve 90 percent national participation by 2015.

The AJRR is governed by a multistakeholder board; surgeons, insurance providers, orthopaedic manufacturers, hospitals, and patient advocacy groups are represented on its board and committees. Initial financial support for the registry has come from orthopaedic surgeons through contributions from the AAOS, the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons, the Hip Society, and the Knee Society. The orthopaedic industry and private payers also provide generous support.

For more information about the joint registry, contact the AJRR at (847) 292-0530 or via e-mail at info@ajrr.net

For a complete list of AJRR donors, visit www.ajrr.net

Laura Khoshaba is administrative coordinator of the AJRR. She can be reached at khoshaba@ajrr.net