Niel Kang of Addenbrookes Hospital and Olga Taylor, of ODEP ask the question – Why do we need to evaluate shoulder arthroplasty data?
There has been a worldwide, exponential growth of shoulder arthroplasty procedures. The UK National Joint Registry (NJR) introduced shoulder arthroplasty procedures in 2012 and is demonstrating year-on-year significant increases (> 25-30 per cent growth annually) in implantation (Table 1).
This is on the background of the explosion of shoulder replacement surgery in the USA (Table 2), which is a $3 billion industry.
In such a fertile environment, there may be a ‘weed’ or two that could create scenarios, such as those witnessed in other orthopaedic subspecialties, such as the 3M Capital and the metal-on-metal hip misery.
Another key driver is the increasing influence of procurement agencies upon decision-making in implant use within surgical departments. Both surgeons and industry are determined that the evidence that such agencies use to make those decisions are clinically based and not on cost effectiveness.
Accordingly, ODEP and BESS are collaborating in a proactive fashion to produce a robust benchmarking system, like those in hip and knee, to which industry will submit their data and ultimately protect patients globally.
How are we evaluating the data? Evolve and align
BESS has been growing in numbers of surgeon members and is fast establishing a glowing reputation for producing the highest- quality research (eg. UKUFF, PROFHER, and CSAW randomised controlled trials,) and working with allied health professionals to design clinical commissioning documents that benefit the patient, both individually to reduce variation of care and system–wide to prevent a ‘postcode lottery’ of delivering a shoulder service. Simultaneously, BESS have proactively approached the UK NJR and ODEP to create a benchmarking system that will help to reward the collection of surgical outcomes in shoulder arthroplasty and its analysis, with a ‘benchmark’ that can be applied internationally.
The ODEP values of independence and not for profit, as outlined in last year’s OPN article on ODEP for knees (http://www.opnews.com/2016/07/knees-and-before/12721) is being maintained.
Lessons have been learnt from