After four years and $12 million, an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-funded project has culminated in the most comprehensive U.S. database on total hip and knee joint replacement patients and their surgical outcomes.
The project and database, known as FORCE-TJR, identifies risk-adjusted national benchmarks, patient risk factors and other clinical measures to help guide surgeons and patients deciding on the timing of surgery and optimal patient selection.
The database includes:
- Information on the optimum timing for hip and knee replacement surgery considering patient pain and disability scores
- National comparisons of pre-operative patient risk factors and outcomes, including post-surgery patient pain and function and readmission rates
- Outcomes data on working-age adults (under the age of 65) who make up more than 40 percent of all total joint replacements patients and are becoming ever more common
The FORCE-TJR registry also provides real-time patient-reported outcome scoring and comprehensive, comparative arthroplasty practice feedback and data to improve patient care, meet reporting requirements, compare performance to peer surgeons and institutions and secure quality incentive payments.
The AHRQ-funded database includes information from more than 30,000 diverse patients collected by more than 150 surgeons from across the U.S. Research was led by the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Mass.