Patricia Franklin, MD, MBA, MPH and David Ayers, MD
Patients undergoing knee and hip replacements should not wait too long before surgery, according to new research led by UMass Medical School faculty and reported in the June 30 Boston Globe.
“It’s a harder road back for recovery,” Patricia Franklin, MD, MBA, MPH, professor of orthopedics & physical rehabilitations and family medicine & community health, and a co-investigator of the study, told the Globe.
David Ayers, MD, the Arthur M. Pappas, MD, Chair in Orthopedics, chair and professor of orthopedics & physical rehabilitation, director of the Musculoskeletal Center of Excellence and co-investigator of the study, explained the joint monitoring program and database called FORCE-TJR.
“We can actually measure where [patients] were before the surgery, how limited they were, and how much pain they had, and we can look a year after surgery,” said Dr. Ayers.
The statistical analysis comes from patient data gathered by more than 136 orthopedic surgeons across 23 U.S. states through FORCE-TJR, led by Ayers and Franklin. FORCE-TJR uses a proprietary computerized system to collect standardized patient-reported information that allows joint pain and function to be scored independently. Together, the data produces a composite score for a patient’s level of pain and physical function.
Read the full story at: Boston Globe: Timing hip and knee replacements
Related links on UMassMedNow:
New medical research targets best time for joint replacement surgery
Ayers to USA Today: some patients ‘wait too long’ for joint replacement
