Registries revolutionize care and outcomes.

No one could believe I’d had two knees replaced”, says 61-year-old Jacquelyn Winn. In 2010, Winn traveled more than 2,800 miles across Japan to fulfill her dream of seeing Mt. Fuji. “I kept up with the activities and didn’t need any extra breaks. We walked an average of 10 miles a day.” The decision to undergo joint replacement surgery is difficult and worrisome for patients like Winn. She suffered from osteoarthritis and tremendous knee pain for many years, which put her athleticism and world exploration on hold for a decade. “I’d been very active up to that point in my life. But ten years of pain put me on the sidelines. The pain was too much.” Family and friends convinced her to talk to an orthopedic surgeon. After trying non-surgical interventions, doctor and patient decided together that surgery was the way to go. For Kaiser Permanente (KP) members and surgeons, decisions about implant choices are based on proven outcomes reported by Kaiser Permanente’s Total Joint Replacement Registry (TJRR). The doctor showed samples of joints and explained what would work, how they would work, and what would best suit her individual needs. Winn’s surgery was a success and eventually, she had both knees replaced. Kaiser Permanente, the largest nonprofit health plan and integrated healthcare delivery system in the United States, was the winner of ECRI Institute’s 5th Annual Health Devices Achievement Award for its TJRR, along with its Cardiac Device Registry (CDR). The award honors excellence in health technology management. Beyond the benefits to patients, the registries can also help clinical engineering and purchasing departments in making decisions on device selection. The joint registry is the nation’s largest, allowing clinicians to analyze data on more than 100,000 joint replacement surgeries performed by more than 350 KP surgeons nationwide. Because of the TJRR, Kaiser Permanente is able to identify patients at risk for poor clinical outcomes, determine the most effective implant devices, track implant usage and cost, monitor and manage implant advisories or recalls, and better maintain overall quality assurance (QA). Based on the success of the TJRR, Kaiser Permanente added orthopedic registries and implemented a Cardiac Device Registry (CDR). The other orthopedic registries address anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, hip fracture, and shoulder and spine implants. The CDR tracks those patients who undergo implantation of an initial or replacement implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) or a pacemaker. The volume of the CDR database totals 52,000 defibrillators and pacemakers and 75,000 leads. The goals of KP registries are: dic or cardiac implants volved in recalls/advisories