AAOS Puts Joint Registry Plan on Hold, Awaits Agency Action

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) has delayed its nationwide registry for joint replacement devices until the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) finalizes rules on data gathering.

“We’ve been intentionally waiting — and sitting with the engine in neutral — waiting for the rules process,” David Lewallen, chairman of the AAOS’ American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR) Oversight Board and head of the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons, said.

The registry would not only help improve care, but it would cut costs by reducing the revision burden — the percentage of revised cases each year — because devices showing problems could be pulled from the market earlier. “A registry will provide a tripwire; it helps us ask questions and go get the answers,” Lewallen said.

Devicemakers would benefit from the registry as they could pull any poorly performing implants from the market faster because they would receive earlier alerts of any issues. Also, patients would have less exposure to questionable implants, Lewallen said.

“A national registry here in the U.S. would be larger than the 22 other national registries that currently exist,” he said, adding that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would save billions of dollars over the next couple of decades if there were such a registry.