Convened under the auspicious of esteemed endorsers - ISTA

computerized clinical follow-up of Joint Arthroplasty, named OrthoWave. The developmentof the OrthoWave suite, since 1996, has got involved clinical studies coordinators, softwareengineers, orthopaedic surgeons, and statisticians.One underlying theme regarding Health Care has and always will be constant: the need tounderstand if our treatments actually work. Providing answers makes not only scientific sensebut pragmatic and economic sense as well. In such a way, Evaluation in Joint Arthroplasty hasbecome a master word in the realm of Orthopaedic Surgery, which thus gets many actorsinvolved, be they Surgeons, Scientific Societies, Health Department Authorities, JournalEditors, and Orthopaedic Devices Manufacturer.While bearing in mind that more than a million of Hip and Knee replacements are worldlyperformed annually and there are thousands of devices and device combinations in use toachieve arthroplasties, these replacement procedures have to be properly evaluated as a verychallenging procedure. An outcomes study software needs to allow for easy and user friendlycollection of clinical data and related images, while preserving privacy of patients and theirpersonal data. This software must then provide consistent statistical and survivorship analyzesin the very long run. The OrthoWave software has been widely used worldly, and currentlyfeatures the on-line Version 6, now available as a web-based secured "cloud computing"computer system. The so called "regular databases" can be linked to additional "scientificdatabases" and "monitored databases" able to set up together a very consistent and efficientglobal system.Roughly speaking, OrthoWave addresses (1) data collection of Surgeons themselves, able toself evaluate their surgeries while owning their own data, (2) Local Registries, involving groupsof Surgeons, to analyze, report and publish clinical series in the Literature, (3) Brand Registries,for tracking upon large multicenter studies at an early stage any problem that might occur withany given implant, (4) Clinical Affairs Departments in Industry, (5) and finally enables potentialautomatic links to National and International Joint Registries.This OrthoWave software has thus permitted a "fine tuning" of clinical results, radiographicfindings, survival rates and real assessment of quality of life, helping to determine in largedatabases studies if implant composition or joint replacement features can be associated withdecreased need for repeat surgery, and to outline best methodological approaches to theassessment of failures in arthroplasty, in terms of functioning, quality of life and long-termdisability.All along these 14 years of continuous use of this OrthoWave software suite, we have tried tohelp it to be more and more efficient and user friendly. The current on-line web-based versionnow meets our expectation, and is flexible enough to adapt itself to future needs and bettertreatments for patients.Saturday, October 9, 2010, 15:00-15:30Session B21: Innovation in Hip ArthroplastyShort Stems: Thinking in Three Dimensions*Joseph Fetto - NYU Hospital for Joint Disease - New York, USAfile:///E|/ISTA2010-Abstracts.htm[12/7/2011 3:15:47 PM]