Highlights: PROMs


The NJR continued to examine and analyse Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) in order to build up a full picture of success for joint replacement surgery

In April 2013, the NJR’s own PROMs project sent out approximately 40,000 three year follow-up questionnaires to patients as part of its ongoing hip and knee PROMs project.  In 2011, 50,000 patients who had completed both a pre-operative and post-operative questionnaire and had also consented to have their data held by the NJR were selected to take part.  The one year questionnaire achieved an 84% response rate as did the three year questionnaire.  The PROMs data has now been linked to NJR data at the record level and is being assessed by Professor Alex MacGregor along with the NJR statistical team at the University of Bristol.  A five-year follow up questionnaire is planned for April 2015.

On 31 March 2013, the NJR completed the first two-years of a three-year shoulder PROMs pilot, as approved by the NJR Steering Committee.  The pilot sent out nearly 7,000 Oxford Shoulder Score questionnaires to patients whose procedures were recorded on the NJR and was devised following discussion with the British Elbow and Shoulder Society (BESS).

The completion rate for the pre-operative Oxford Shoulder Scores (which is collected via the shoulder primary and revision data collection forms) was 45%.  The completion rate for the post-operative questionnaire at six months following surgery was approximately 75%.

Following collection and analysis of the data, BESS reported back to the NJR Steering Committee in March 2014 and discussions on the outcomes of the pilot are due to take place in July 2014. At this meeting, the steering committee will evaluate the feedback from the two-year pilot and review plans for the third and final year of the study.