AOFAS and M2S Partner to Improve Patient Outcomes

The American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS) and M2S have launched the Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Outcomes Research Network (OFAR), a patient-reported outcomes data collection system. Using the M2S PATHWAYS clinical data platform, OFAR will track clinical and patient-reported outcomes for most orthopedic foot and ankle conditions. A major quality and research initiative, OFAR is poised to expand the breadth and availability of data to improve future foot and ankle patient care and enhance the quality and efficiency of outcomes research. 
 
The AOFAS recognizes the unique value of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in measuring foot and ankle treatment outcomes as well as the increasing demand for orthopedic practitioners to measure and benchmark performance. The OFAR infrastructure will provide an efficient way for providers to collect data on the most common foot and ankle surgical procedures and treatments that may occur in an episode of care. Patient-reported outcomes will include the PROMIS computer adaptive testing instruments to reduce PRO data entry burden for patients. 
 
Kenneth J. Hunt, M.D., OFAR managerial board chair, has led the OFAR implementation effort and emphasizes that “OFAR’s high-quality, representative, real-world data will provide considerable value to AOFAS members’ quality improvement efforts, research, and innovation, and will lead to advances in orthopaedic foot and ankle patient care. With experience in registry development and clinical research, M2S brings valuable infrastructure and operational expertise to OFAR.” 
 
Data collected through OFAR will allow hospitals, practices, and individual providers to compare their performance with national benchmarks and will provide valuable insight into the effectiveness of orthopedic interventions. OFAR has established a research network that will answer today’s key questions in foot and ankle surgery. With an eye to improving future patient care quality, OFAR will also foster innovation and facilitate collaborations with medical device companies and regulators to increase risk and benefit knowledge about existing and new devices and implants. Patient data will be entered into the OFAR registry on a pilot basis beginning in mid-2017, with the network expected to expand to AOFAS members nationally by late 2017. 
 
Wael Elseaidy, CEO of M2S and its parent company, Medstreaming, said, “The AOFAS leadership team has made a commitment to changing the field of foot and ankle surgery. Their passion and enthusiasm will make OFAR a huge success.” 
 
The American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society is a medical specialty society comprised of more than 2,200 orthopedic surgeons (M.D.s and D.O.s) from the United States and abroad who specialize in the care of patients with injuries, diseases, and other conditions of the foot and ankle. Orthopedic foot and ankle surgeons diagnose and medically and surgically treat foot and ankle musculoskeletal system disorders, perform reconstructive procedures, treat sports injuries, and manage and treat trauma of the foot and ankle. The AOFAS supports the specialty and other healthcare providers through education and research and provides leadership as a resource for government and industry as well as the national and international healthcare communities.
 
M2S is a healthcare performance management solutions company that provides technology and services for the healthcare industry to manage clinical information and utilize that information to improve the quality of patient care and reduce costs. The Vascular Quality Initiative, Neurovascular Quality Initiative, and the Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Outcomes Research Network, are built on M2S’s PATHWAYS clinical data performance platform, allowing users to track, measure, and analyze clinical information, promote collaboration, objectively drive decisions, and optimize performance.