Today’s Top Story
Study: How does HT autograft compare to PT autograft for ACLR?
A study published online in The American Journal of Sports Medicine compares long-term outcomes for patients who undergo isolated endoscopic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) using either hamstring (HT) or patellar tendon (PT) autograft. The authors conducted a cohort study of 180 patients who underwent isolated ACL reconstruction. At 20-year follow-up, they found that 16 patients (18 percent) in the HT cohort and 9 patients (10 percent) in the PT cohort had experienced ACL graft rupture. However, they also noted improved International Knee Documentation Committee scores, reduced kneeling pain, and less radiographic osteoarthritic change in the HT cohort compared to the PT cohort. Increased likelihood of ACL graft rupture was associated with male sex, non-ideal tunnel position, and age <18 years at the time of surgery. Read the abstract…

Other News

Study: Two biomarkers linked to spine OA.
According to a study conducted in Canada and published online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight, two biomarkers may be linked to increased likelihood of spine osteoarthritis (OA). The researchers identified a cohort of 55 patients being treated with compression or diskectomy for facet joint (FJ) cartilage degeneration. From those, they screened 2,100 microRNAs and identified two (miR-181a-5p and miR-4454) that were significantly elevated in FJ OA cartilage compared with control facet cartilage. Read more…
Read the complete study…

Study: Transition program with medication reconciliation may help reduce readmissions.
Data from a study published online in the journal Health Affairs suggest that implementation of a pharmacist-led care transition program focused on medication reconciliation, among other things, may help reduce readmissions. The research team reviewed information from an insurer-initiated care transition program targeted at high-risk patients. Program participants received an initial in-home or telephone consultation based on readmission risk and were offered ongoing telephone support for 30 days after discharge. The research team found that program participation was associated with a 50 percent reduced relative risk of readmission within 30 days of discharge and an absolute risk reduction of 11.1 percent. In addition, they estimate that the program saved $2 for every $1 spent. Read more…
Read the abstract…

Study: Is the presence of manufacturer representatives an ethical concern?
Findings published online in the journal PLOS ONE suggest ethical concerns regarding the reliance of surgeons on manufacturer representatives for education and surgical assistance. The researchers conducted a qualitative, ethnographic study of the relationships among surgeons, medical device representatives, and industry involvement in surgeon education. They conducted two focus groups, including one with hospital-based attending orthopaedic surgeons, as well as individual interviews with three former or current medical device representatives, a director of a surgical residency program at an academic medical center, and a medical assistant for a multi-physician orthopaedic practice. The researchers write that, although “surgeons view themselves as indisputably in charge, device reps work hard to make themselves unobtrusively indispensable in order to establish and maintain influence, and to imbue the products they provide with personalized services that foster a surgeon’s loyalty to the reps and their companies.” Read the complete study…

Survey suggests many device manufacturers may not meet upcoming FDA deadline for UDI.
Survey data released by Loftware, Inc. and USDM LLC suggest that few medical device manufacturers may be prepared to meet an upcoming U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) deadline for compliance with unique device identification (UDI) rules. The Sept. 24 deadline stipulates that labels and packages of Class II medical devices bear UDI barcode labels with correctly formatted dates, and data for Class II devices must be submitted to the FDA Global Unique Device Identification Database. The researchers polled approximately 120 medical device industry professionals and found that only 15 percent are currently compliant with the next phase of regulation and “are in need of a sustainable labeling solution, which would allow them to make the necessary adjustments to achieve compliance across their enterprise and be prepared for ensuing phases of the regulation.” Read more…
Learn more about the UDI program…
Learn more about FDA medical device classification…

National Surgical Patient Safety Summit releases recommendations.
Workgroups convened as part of a 2-day event sponsored by AAOS and the American College of Surgeons (ACS) have released a series of recommendations designed to develop surgical care and surgical education curricula standards and encourage efforts into safety research. The recommendations include the creation and adoption of standardized surgical safety education programs and simulation-based safety training modules for the entire surgical team, as well as the following:

  • Teamwork training that begins during undergraduate medical education and continues through postgraduate training and maintenance of certification
  • Shared-decision making practices
  • Patient-centered surgical consent processes
  • Standardized surgical site marking and identification policies
  • A common data collection system to measure and improve patient safety outcomes

Read more…
Read the recommendations (PDF)…

Call for volunteers: Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement.
AAOS seeks to nominate members to the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (PCPI) Foundation Board of Directors, Measures Advisory Committee, and Quality Improvement Advisory Committee. PCPI is nationally recognized for measure development, specification and testing of measures, and enabling use of measures in electronic health records. Applicants for these positions must be active fellows, candidate members, candidate members osteopathic, candidate member applicants for fellowship, or candidate member applicants for fellowship osteopathic. In addition, all applicants must supply the following: an online AAOS CAP application, a current curriculum vitae, and a nomination form (obtained from the email below). All materials should be submitted to Kyle Shah by Aug. 14, 2016 at 11:59 p.m. CT, at: shah@aaos.org
Learn more and submit your application…(member login required)