Alan S. Hilibrand,Kurt Spindler,Regis J. O’Keefe

Orthopaedic surgery is expensive and will be carefully scrutinized in the U.S. under health-care reform. Unfortunately, although the orthopaedic literature is replete with clinical outcomes studies, there is still a paucity of meaningful clinical outcomes data that are free from bias. It is possible that orthopaedic procedures may be among the most cost-effective medical treatments for the aging population. However, it is only through the collection of patient-generated outcomes data in prospective randomized and observational studies that orthopaedic surgery can be shown to provide high value (defined as high-quality outcomes at a relatively low cost) to society.

The burden of musculoskeletal disease in the U.S. is high; nearly half of all adults describe themselves as having a chronic musculoskeletal condition, and approximately one-quarter of all health-care dollars are spent treating musculoskeletal disease. For this reason, treatment for osteoarthritis, the costliest condition in the elderly population, has drawn great scrutiny from insurers and the government. In the absence of clinical outcomes data that prove the value of orthopaedic interventions, there will be pressure to reduce payments or even deny treatments for these conditions if they are perceived to be too expensive or lack outcomes data supporting their use.