10 US Spine Surgery Registries to Know

AO Spine Non Fusion Registry. The AO Foundation and its AO Spine have launched a comprehensive spine registry, ongoing, observational clinical database. Physicians and researchers can use the registry to develop evidence-based information about the risks and benefits of spine surgery to improve patient outcomes. The organization encourages surgeons to assist in the collection of clinical data and the data collected is expected to include long-term clinical programs that are anticipated to proceed for around 20 years. The registry will include patients who have fusions, arthroplasty, corpectomy, vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty, as well as treatment for fractures and deformity. The organization has a regional board in North America.

Chest Wall and Spine Deformity Registry. John Smith, MD, a physician at the University of Utah, created the Chest Wall and Spine Deformity Registry for surgeons to access data about patients with chest wall and spinal disorders. The registry focuses on patients with thoracic insufficiency syndrome who are treated with a verticular expandable prosthetic titanium rib. The registry aims to provide surgeons with retrospective and prospective data to study spinal disorders.

NASS Registry. The North American Spine Society plans to launch a pilot registry program next month to collect data on spine treatment clinical outcomes. The registry's goal is early detection of spinal problems that deserve further study. If the pilot program is successful, the organization will install a permanent registry with additional funding. The current registry's categories include patient demographics, patient outcome measures and process measures.

National Spine Network Spine Registry. The National Spine Network is a non-profit, integrated spine registry and clinical trial network formed in 1994. The organization's mission is to improve quality of care, productivity of the spine care provider and cost-effectiveness of spine research. NSN has also developed a sophisticated informatics platform, SpineChart, to collect physician and patient data. Originally, the group was focused on large, academic and research-oriented practices recognized as centers of excellence for spine care, but in 2006 expanded its vision to include smaller community-based practices as well. Between 1995 and 2004 the registry gathered information for more than 60,000 patients and members have published several papers in peer-review journals using the data.

National Neurosurgery Quality Outcomes Database. One of the NeuroPoint Alliance projects is the National Neurosurgery Quality and Outcomes Database, which serves as a continuous national clinical registry for neurosurgical procedures and patterns. The registry tracks quality and provides groups with the immediate infrastructure for analyzing and reporting quality of care. The goals of the registry include to establish risk-adjusted national benchmarks for cost and quality for common neurological procedures as well as to allow researchers and physicians to analyze data and outcomes in real time.

Scoliosis Outcomes Database Registry. Baron Lonner, MD, is the principle investigator for the Scoliosis Outcomes Database Registry at NYU Langone Medical Center Musculoskeletal Research Center. The registry will allow physicians and researchers to analyze long-term outcomes of surgical treatment of idiopathic scoliosis of all curve patterns. Patients will undergo either anterior or posterior procedures, and the registry will also collect long-term outcomes of nonoperative idiopathic scoliosis patients.

SOLAS Spinal Surgery Registry. The Society of Lateral Access Surgery and NuVasive have launched the SOLAS Spinal Surgery Registry, a prospective multi-center observational data collection initiative. The registry will capture clinical and radiographic outcomes in patients who have degenerative, deformity and traumatic pathologies and are candidates for surgery. The registry was launched in early 2011 and continues to enroll patients in participating studies.

SMISS Data Registry. The Society for Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery teamed with Globus Medical last year to create the SMISS Data Registry for the Treatment of Degenerative Lumbar Spondylolisthesis, Degenerative Disc Disease, Spinal Stenosis and Degenerative Scoliosis. It is the first prospective registry to evaluate minimally invasive spine surgical patient outcomes exclusively. The registry captures prospective clinical data from 10 to 15 clinical sites across the United States for studies focused on quality of life, outcomes, adverse events, fusion rates and costs associated with the minimally invasive approach. Choll Kim, MD, was the executive director of SMISS when the registry was launched in October last year.

The Spine Registry. Kaiser Permanente now has a spine registry designed to track all spine procedures, including revision surgeries and infections. The registry gathers data on patient satisfaction and pain scores, and currently all Kaiser medical centers in Southern California and one in Northern California participate in the registry. The physicians and researchers hope registry information will help them determine the best techniques and implants for their patients.

Vanderbilt Prospective Spine Registry. The Vanderbilt Prospective Spine Registry is a part of the Spinal Column Surgical Quality and Outcomes Research Laboratory at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. Physicians and researchers use data from the spine registry to evaluate results of the prospective diagnoses. The laboratory aims to improve neurological outcomes, functional capacity and quality of life for patients, as well as examine and improve patient safety, efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Their retrospective database and prospective patient registries help achieve their goals in this process.