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Second annual Joint Replacement Awareness Day to be held May 4
Joint Replacement Awareness Day aims to 'fill the gaps' in patients' questions, concerns about joint replacement.
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On May 4, 2019, BoneSmart will host the second annual Joint Replacement Awareness Day program in partnership with The Foundation for the Advancement in Research in Medicine. The event brings together orthopedic surgeons and patients to share knowledge and stories about hip and knee replacement.
Orthopedics Today is the official media partner of Joint Replacement Awareness Day.
“[Joint Replacement Awareness Day is] an online, internet-based program where we have patients, doctors and nurses together to discuss all aspects about hip and knee replacement from a patient’s perspective in terms of things they need to know, questions they should be asking their surgeon [and] what is real vs. what is myth about what to expect after surgery,” Raj K. Sinha, MD, PhD, moderator and host of Joint Replacement Awareness Day and president of STAR Orthopedics, told Orthopedics Today.
Improve the patient experience
Established with the intent to educate patients with arthritis about total joint replacement, topics covered at the 2018 Joint Replacement Awareness Day included finding the right surgeon, preparing for surgery, surgical techniques and rehabilitation. This year’s program will include more information about the patient experience and less technical information, Sinha said.
“Maybe [patients] do not need to know the technical details of how I am going to do a hip replacement, but they do need to know what to expect and whether one technique might be better for them than another surgical technique and why we think that,” Sinha said.
Organizers hope to provide objective data and information that will abate a patient’s fear when it comes to undergoing TJR, he noted.
“If you are not a patient yet and all you know is one person who has had a bad experience, then that tends to discolor your view of the whole field,” Sinha said. “In reality, that is a rare occurrence. What we are trying to tell people is things happen, but they are few and far between.”
Benefits for orthopedic surgeons
Michael D. Ries, MD, a faculty member of Joint Replacement Awareness Day from the Reno Orthopedic Clinic in Reno, Nevada, said he wants webinar attendees to expand their knowledge and understanding of their individual conditions.
“The intent is to fill in the gaps where people still have some questions or concerns or maybe there are some things they did not know about in the first place and they want to learn. Patients can continue the discussion with their treating orthopedic surgeon,” Ries told Orthopedics Today in an interview.
Despite being a program directed towards patients, Sinha said this webinar and other programs and webinars provided by BoneSmart can also be beneficial for orthopedic surgeons.
“[In] everything that we are providing, whether it is Joint Replacement Awareness Day or the BoneSmart website, there is information for the surgeon’s patients, but it is also beneficial for the surgeons because they can direct their patients to that website not only to get information, but also to talk to other patients,” Sinha said. – by Casey Tingle
- Reference:
- Joint Replacement Awareness Day. Available at: www.jointawareday.org. Accessed Feb. 27, 2019.
- For more information:
- Michael D. Ries, MD, can be reached at 555 N. Arlington Ave., Reno, NV 89503; email: mries@renoortho.com.
- Raj K. Sinha, MD, PhD, can be reached at 36101 Bob Hope Dr., Suite A-1, Rancho Mirage, CA 92270; email: rajatstarortho@gmail.com.
Disclosures: Ries and Sinha report no relevant financial disclosures.