Why did you volunteer to be on the AAOS Shoulder & Elbow Registry (SER) Steering Committee?
I was excited to lend a hand to the then nascent AAOS SER as I had extensive experience in being a principal involved in setting up and maintaining the Kaiser Permanente (KP) Shoulder Arthroplasty Registry. I felt my experience would help in the early days and my KP team was willing to provide much in the way of raw ICD-10 and CPT data to the AAOS registry. We like helping other registries get off the ground. And, I have a great admiration for our AAOS and enjoy contributing. All boats rise with this attitude.
What’s one thing you want people to know about the Registry that they may not know?
This represents the first truly national effort of a shoulder and elbow registry. The work to think about multiple constituencies has been met with great rigor and data from not only hospitals, but from ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) and has been thoughtfully considered as a wonderful nuance with great engagement for ASC concerns.
Why do you love the AAOS Registry Program?
The first endeavor of all registries is to help patients via harnessing data that will be in aggregate to be able to describe performance of implants. Both well performing and poorly performing are better detected via large registries to surveille implant survivorship. This helps future patients for best in class and ones that should be reconsidered. Amazing clinical questions can be studied with large databases in a registry format and slight differences that make big clinical differences can be seen more easily.
Why do you think Registry data is important as an AAOS member?
We are a national organization of orthopaedic surgeons. We should be the arbiter of the national databases in the form of registries to help ensure best quality and ultimately value for the patient population of this nation. With registries, we truly own that calling.