Orthopaedic registries: the Australian experience

The Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry first began data collection on 1 September 1999 and full nationwide implementation commenced in January 2003. The purpose of the Registry is to improve the quality of care for individuals receiving joint replacement surgery. The Registry enables surgeons, academic institutions, governments and industry to request specific data that are not available in published annual reports. There is an established system for identifying prostheses with a higher than anticipated rate of revision (HTARR) which was introduced in 2004. The higher rate of revision for the ASR Hip Resurfacing System was first identified by this process in 2007. There has been a reduction in revision hip and knee replacement over the years that the Registry has been in operation, and the addition of Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) and data linkage will enable more extensive analysis of joint replacement surgery in the future.