There are initiatives that are not included with the NJR but which are dependent upon NJR involvement and support.
Beyond Compliance
The NJR continued to support Beyond Compliance, an external initiative to help protect patient safety in the UK - this section is authored by the Beyond Compliance Steering Committee.
Beyond Compliance has been set up in the interest of patients and its aim is to support the safe and stepwise introduction of new or modified medical implants such as joint replacements. It represents a landmark achievement as Beyond Compliance is the first independent body recognised by regulators, professionals and industry alike to collect and scrutinise this type of data.
Beyond Compliance collects and analyses outcomes data on the in-market performance of some new UK orthopaedic implants. It uses NJR data and data from other sources including information about patients who receive these implants and about their recovery following surgery. This data is made available to surgeons using the implant, to the manufacturer and to independent assessors from the Beyond Compliance Advisory Group, to provide real-time monitoring of the implant’s performance.
Beyond Compliance Advisory Group
An independent panel of experts, known as the Beyond Compliance Advisory Group, work with the implant manufacturer to assess the relative risk of any new product, and the rate at which it should be introduced to the market.
The group also monitors the early performance of new implants, in order that any potential problems relating to a product or its surgical use can be identified before large numbers have been implanted. The initiative supports graduated implant introduction, with the agreement of the manufacturer, to reduce the likelihood of widespread dissemination of implants before any weaknesses are identified in real-world use.
Beyond Compliance Steering Committee
The initiative has a Steering Committee which takes responsibility for determining the overall policy for the process. It is made up of representatives of all the stakeholders. The concept of “Beyond Compliance” was introduced by the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) with support from the Association of British Healthcare Industries (ABHI). The Steering Committee chairmanship and structure reflects its origins. Other stakeholders include patients, the British Hip Society (BHS), the British Association for Surgery of the Knee (BASK), the NJR, notified bodies, and the Department of Health.
Progress
Beyond Compliance operates in an environment underpinned by European law affecting both the product CE marking, and also procurement legislation on the selection and purchasing of products within public sector entities. It is important, therefore, that Beyond Compliance is not seen to be a mandatory service, rather an optional service available to manufacturers.
Last year we reported that the number of contracted implants was seven with expressions of interest for another fourteen. As at the end of this reporting period there were 32 new implant brands for which the service is now collecting and reporting data.
Further information about Beyond Compliance and the details of the implants currently registered for the service can be found at the Beyond Compliance website www.beyondcompliance.org.uk.
ODEP
The Orthopaedic Data Evaluation Panel was established in 2002 to monitor National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on primary hip implants. This was extended to knees in 2014 and discussions about the inclusion of shoulder implants are ongoing. ODEP assigns ratings to implants based on a simple and independently verified assessment of implant performance, assessed against national clinical guidelines.
The NJR supports ODEP both by providing support to its meetings and by providing data to suppliers, via NJR Supplier Feedback, which can form part of the evidence submitted by manufacturers to ODEP as part of the assessment process.
The NJR also maintains ODEP for prostheses (currently hip stem and hip acetabular cup only) in its database which are used for its reporting services. One of the indicators published as part of the Clinical Outcomes Programme (COP) is the use of ODEP rated hip stems and cups. Work will be undertaken in 2016/17 to enable the NJR to track changes to ratings for an implant for reporting purposes.
For further information about ODEP and ODEP ratings, please visit the ODEP website at www.odep.org.uk.