This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Joint Replacement Awareness Day on April 14 will provide education
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
The worldwide, live online Joint Replacement Awareness Day event being held April 14 is a forum to discuss total joint reconstruction data in a way that helps patients have realistic expectations about the surgery and its outcomes, including the perioperative period, according to event organizers.
The free online awareness day, which is organized by BoneSmart, will benefit patients with a lot of questions about TJR, organizers told Orthopedics Today. They encouraged orthopedic surgeons and patients to log onto and use the BoneSmart website as a resource prior to April 14.
Orthopedics Today is the official media partner of Joint Replacement Awareness Day.
Event program
Raj K. Sinha, MD, PhD, who will moderate panel discussions and make presentations during the one-day event, is a Joint Replacement Awareness Day steering committee member with Orthopedics Today Editorial Board Member B. Sonny Bal, MD, JD, MBA, PhD; Jonathan P. Garino, MD; and Charles L. Nelson, MD.
The concept was developed by Sinha and Richard Warner at the Foundation for the Advancement in Research in Medicine organization and developed with Mark Sacaris, of BoneSmart. BoneSmart is a continual, online orthopedic community and patient education platform with more than 25,000 members. BoneSmart allows individuals to interface with online moderators and helps them feel comfortable about TJR surgery and understand the value of joint replacement, according to Sacaris.
“We also want patients not to wait too long, as a message,” he said.
Focus on patient education
Regarding Joint Replacement Awareness Day, “The focus of this is patient education, patient awareness, particularly to abate fear that patients have,” Sinha, a founder of BoneSmart, said.
Sinha expects the surgeon panels held during the event will be well-received because that presentation format, with varied opinions, is one orthopedic surgeons prefer at their own meetings.
“It is going to be interesting for patients to hear multiple surgeons talk about a single topic from different perspectives and sharing their experiences and their results,” he said.
The first part of the agenda focuses on understanding the arthritic condition, finding the right surgeon and what happens during TJR, which will be of interest to patients and potential patients, according to Sacaris.
“We are going to have patients coming to us along the spectrum of where their arthritic disease is. Some patients may come for the early section like, ‘Why does my hip hurt?’ or ‘Am I a candidate?’ and [discussions] around early intervention and how do I manage my pain right now,” he said.
There will be on-demand availability after the 4- to 6-hour event accessible at the BoneSmart website, Sacaris noted.
Planning for the event began last spring, according to Sinha. He hopes the information presented during Joint Replacement Awareness Day sessions will help patients scheduled for or considering TJR differentiate hype from proven science from among the multiple, and sometimes conflicting, messages they receive about this surgery.
Based on early registration results, about 2,000 individuals will participate in the first Joint Replacement Awareness Day, Sacaris told Orthopedics Today.
“That will be successful from that standpoint and it will give us something to build on for the next 5 to 10 to 15 years, because Joint Replacement Awareness Day is now. We are drawing a line in the sand and saying, this is going to happen every year. It will just continue to grow and we are excited about the opportunity to collaborate on this important initiative with organizations around the globe,” he said. – by Susan M. Rapp
- References:
- https://bonesmart.org
- https://jointawareday.org
- For more information:
- Mark Sacaris can be reached at 249 S. Highway 101, #115, Solana Beach, CA 92075; email: mark@bonesmart.org.
- Raj K Sinha, MD, PhD, can be reached at S.T.A.R. Orthopaedics, 36101 Bob Hope Dr., Rancho Mirage, CA 92270; email: rajatstarortho@gmail.com.
Disclosures: Sacaris reports he manages BoneSmart. Sinha reports no relevant financial disclosures.