Research activities

The AJRR-C supports joint replacement research through its Administrative Core, Methodology Core and Resource Core.

Administrative Core

The AJRR-C's Administrative Core provides the management structure to support the collaborative's administrative and scientific work. It provides leadership at the institutional and national level. Its functions include:

  • Communicating and sharing research.
  • Conducting outreach activities.
  • Implementing research projects.
  • Carrying out continuous improvement efforts.
  • Administering pilot projects and fellowships.

Core leaders

Methodology Core

The AJRR-C's Methodology Core makes the most of Mayo Clinic's unique clinical research expertise in epidemiology, statistics, health sciences research and informatics. It helps researchers use data resources to maximum advantage to enhance clinical research in total joint replacement nationwide.

The collaborative accomplishes this by:

  • Providing consultation, education and mentoring services for investigators.
  • Examining and optimizing existing databases and clinical research networks to identify the most informative study populations and study designs.
  • Developing and disseminating novel methodologies for observational and interventional study designs.

Consulting, education and mentoring

The Methodology Core provides two unique resources for researchers in the field: the Methodology Consultation Resource and the Education and Mentoring Resource.

  • Methodology Consultation Resource. This resource offers expert advice on all aspects of total joint replacement research and provides support in:
    • Data management.
    • Grant writing.
    • Power calculations.
    • Protocol development.
    • Statistical analysis.
    • Study design.

Depending on need, consultation services may include developing new statistical tools or enhancing the infrastructure necessary for total joint replacement research by improving links between databases.

The Methodology Consultative Resource is interdisciplinary, with expertise in observational designs, use of secondary data sources and clinical trials.

  • Education and Mentoring Resource. This resource provides web-based educational offerings and mentoring resources, customized to total joint arthroplasty clinical research.

Learn more about the Methodology Core's offerings and findings:

Core leader

Resource Core

AJRR resources

The AJRR-C's Resource Core provides investigators with access to national total joint replacement data through the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR). The AJRR is a national hip and knee replacement registry initiated in 2011 to monitor the safety of total joint replacement implants and improve care for patients receiving such implants. It is part of a family of national orthopedic surgery subspecialty registries maintained by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).

The AJRR-C and the AAOS have established an ongoing, synergistic collaboration. The collaborative's Resource Core enhances the clinical research capabilities of the total joint arthroplasty research community by providing access to nationwide AJRR registry data. The AAOS, in turn, benefits from shared knowledge and methodological advances produced through the collaborative's studies.

Mayo Clinic resources

The American Joint Replacement Research-Collaborative (AJRR-C) uses the resources in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery on Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota. The department is staffed by more than 50 physicians and almost 150 allied health staff.

In particular, the collaborative uses two of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery's large clinical registries:

  • Mayo Clinic Total Joint Arthroplasty Registry. The Mayo Clinic Total Joint Arthroplasty Registry was established when the first total hip arthroplasty was performed at Mayo Clinic in March 1969. Since then, detailed manual data collection has been part of routine clinical care and follow-up for all patients. The registry contains information pertaining to almost 150,000 arthroplasties, 85% of which involve the hip and knee joints. Completeness of follow-up is impressive and remains at 70% even 30 years after surgery. Information recorded in the registry includes but is not limited to:
    • Preoperative clinical details.
    • Surgical history.
    • Underlying diagnoses and indications for surgery.
    • Surgical procedure details.
    • Implants.
    • Radiograph dates.
    • Complications.
  • Prosthetic Joint Infections Registry. The Prosthetic Joint Infections Registry has been in operation for more than 20 years and includes clinical, laboratory and treatment details of all patients with periprosthetic joint infections who have received care at Mayo Clinic.