AJRR Launches Total Joint Replacement Risk Calculator at AAOS Meeting

The American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR) shared its new gift with orthopedic surgeons this week.

The non-profit group debuted the Total Joint Replacement (TJR) Risk Calculator at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons 2015 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, Nev. The Calculator was given to the AJRR by Ortho Apps, a collaborative of Massachusetts General Hospital, the Mayo Clinic and the University of California-San Francisco.

The TJR Risk Calculator is designed to help surgeons assess risk in patients undergoing procedures related to their co-morbidities and demographics. It was created using Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services data from 2007-2012 and contains more than 30 different co-morbidities, including cardiac arrhythmia, coagulopathy, diabetes, hypertension, Ischemic heart disease, obesity, peripheral vascular disease, rheumatologic disease, and valvular disease. 

Surgeons input data into the calculator, and the risk is displayed in two graphs: Patient Mortality within 90 Days and Periprosthetic Joint Infection within Two Years. Each graph displayed contains a comparison between the patient with the selected demographics and co-morbidities, a patient with similar demographics but no co-morbidities, and Medicare population average.

“Receiving this risk calculator from Ortho Apps will allow for AJRR to offer surgeons a tool to provide better patient care by becoming more educated on the risk associated with each procedure,” said AJRR Executive Director Jeffrey P. Knezovich, C.A.E.

AJRR representatives are demonstrating the Risk Calculator at the group’s booth, located outside Academy Hall G in the Venetian/Sands EXPO.

The American Joint Replacement Registry is a multi-stakeholder, independent, non-profit organization for data collection and quality improvement initiatives in total hip and knee replacements. As of February 2015, the AJRR contains hip and knee procedural data from nearly 450 hospitals and 2,900 surgeons in all 50 states. The registry is increasing at a rate of 2,500 procedures each week; to date, it contains information on more than 190,000 procedures.