Mobile app will support CPG use

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has awarded a 3-year innovation grant to the AAOS to improve patient care in orthopaedics through the dissemination of AAOS evidence-based clinical practice guidelines (CPGs), quality tools, and supporting information. The funds will be used to develop an easy to access, searchable online platform and mobile application that will be accessible from computers, smart phones, and tablets.

“Disseminating AAOS evidence-based CPGs is a key component of the guidelines process; without dissemination, guideline recommendations cannot be implemented and they will influence neither practice nor policy,” said Kevin J. Bozic, MD, MBA, chair of the AAOS Council on Research and Quality, who will serve as the project director. Deborah S. Cummins, PhD, director of the AAOS department of research and scientific affairs, will serve as the principle investigator.

The web-based application will contain AAOS evidence-based CPGs, along with case studies, interactive webinars, self-study modules, supporting patient education materials, and peer discussions on one platform to encourage and enable the implementation of evidence-based medicine in orthopaedic surgery.

“We estimate that it will take 6 to 9 months to develop the tool and have it ready for pilot testing,” said Dr. Bozic. Four orthopaedic residency programs—Tufts University (Boston), the University of Florida (Jacksonville, Fla.), the University of California San Francisco (Fresno, Calif.) and Rush University (Chicago)—will serve as pilot test sites, beginning in early 2014.

The application will also be evaluated by focus groups and through random survey samplings of AAOS members. The grant was awarded in June 2013 and will be completed in March 2016. For further information, contact Leeaht Gross, evidence-based medicine coordinator, department of research and scientific affairs, at gross@aaos.com