BlueCross Blueshield: The health-insurance behemoth is pouring roughly $300 million into startups such as … InVivoLink, which tracks and analyzes data from medical implants.

At this year’s annual AAOS meeting, the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR) announced that they were “open for business.”… Last week, Nashville, Tennesse-based InVivoLink published a joint press release with the AJRR to announce that they would be enabling a direct feed of registry data to the national registry.

InVivoLink has partnered with the American Joint Replacement Registry to collaborate on technology that would automate the feed of orthopedic implant data to AJRR’s registry platform, according to a joint news release.

February 7, 2012 (Nashville, Tenn.) — InVivoLink and the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR) have announced the two organizations will collaborate on technology that automates the feed of orthopedic implant data to the AJRR’s registry platform. The direct link between InVivoLink’s registry data acquisition tools and the AJRR facilitates a nationwide orthopedic implant registry project designed to monitor medical device performance and improve patient outcomes.

“The AJRR’s new collaboration with InVivoLink is a valuable one, because it strengthens the AJRR’s mission of improving patient safety and increasing quality of care while removing costs,” said David Lewallen, M.D., chair of the AJRR.

Projected growth in total joint replacement procedures coupled with their rising costs present significant challenges for providers and payers. The combined initiative by InVivoLink and the AJRR addresses these issues by providing data to support evidence-based medicine, identifying patients at risk for poor outcomes, improving the tracking of complication rates, and enhancing management of device recalls.

InVivoLink is a web-based platform that automates implant registry data capture throughout the continuum of care. InVivoLink’s innovative data collection process simplifies providers’ participation in local and national registry initiatives by using automated processes and delivering high-quality data.

“As a former total joint replacement surgeon at The New Mexico Center for Joint Replacement Surgery and one who has maintained a comprehensive research database for all total hip and knee replacements since 1982, I understand the importance of collecting accurate data associated with the patient and his or her implants. Now that I’m in an administrative role with a hospital, I value the efficient and effective mode of data collection through InVivoLink’s process. Having their assistance in gathering the right metrics for not only a national joint registry but also monitoring fiscal performance has been a tremendous success,” said Richard E. White, Jr., M.D., who practiced in Albuquerque for 30 years and currently is an administrative consultant for clinical and fiscal development in total joint replacement for the three hospitals of Lovelace Health System in Albuquerque.

“InVivoLink is dedicated to supporting the AJRR’s initiative by making it easy to participate in the national registry while providing an overarching value proposition to the hospital,” said Ryan Wells, InVivoLink CEO. “What we are doing is remarkable because it is a system that supports evidence-based medicine while paying for itself through operational value to the hospital.”

About the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR)

The AJRR is a multi-stakeholder, independent, not-for-profit organization with diverse national constituents and the goal of optimizing patient outcomes through collection of data on all primary and revision total joint replacement procedures in the U.S. The mission of the registry is to improve patient safety, increase quality of care and reduce the cost of care. Learn more at http://orthodoc.aaos.org/ajrr/grp_index.cfm.

About InVivoLink

InVivoLink (IVL) collects, monitors and disseminates medical device data via its implant registry technology. IVL works to improve clinical outcomes, elevate the patient experience, and remove waste throughout the continuum of care by enabling providers to more effectively engage patients and partners. For more information, visit www.invivolink.com.

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InVivoLink will be at the 2012 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Conference in San Francisco, February 7-11.  Set up a meeting with an InVivoLink representative to learn more about how InVivoLink’s technology streamlines Level 3 Registry initiatives, collects and analyzes quality data, improves orthopedic research, and puts physicians in position to control practice risks over the episode of care.

InVivoLink will be hosting a series of events during AAOS to celebrate a number of significant milestones since AAOS 2011, including:

• Growth within two large U.S. for-profit hospital systems
• Level 3 registry projects implemented in one of the largest U.S. no-profit hospital systems
• Advancing a community hospital’s efforts to participate in a CMS bundled payment initiative
• Adoption in one of the Acute Care Episode (ACE) demonstration sites

For more information, contact Tim Kinner ( tkinner@invivolink.com ).

•  Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s bionic leg
• Smith & Nephew’s iPod Touch interface for its Dash Smart Instrument System
• The ComforMIS iTotal Knee Replacement System
• The Artificial Muscle-Operated (AMO) Arm developed by students at Ryerson University

In this interview, InVivoLink’s CEO, Ryan Wells, discusses how InVivoLink is helping best-in-class orthopedic centers manage registry data collection, patient engagement, and quality across the episode of care.

Our therapists have two different surveys that they’re are performing, one for total hip replacements, and one for total knee replacements. So the day of surgery when the physician is scheduling their surgery, they walk in, it just takes a few minutes to complete the study. And it will help give us information on what we’re doing with the patient for exercises, what we’re doing to train them for function, getting around in the community.

The learning curve is very short. We were instructed on how to use the software. The supervisors were instructed, we took that back to the staff, the staff caught very quickly because it was very user friendly.

We were really excited to be able to capture information before surgery and after surgery. And looking back at this information, we’ll be able to tweak our care to provide the best care and the best quality. And so in looking for quality with our patients, it’s very important, and also functional outcomes because functional outcomes really lead to patient satisfaction.

Using mobile technologies and the "ImplantLink" patient portal, InVivoLink successfully engages patients and their care team in improving care and understanding outcomes.  By bringing clinicians closer together around a patient's specific needs, care is personalized, care transitions are improved, and the patient's return to functional satisfaction is accelerated.

In this video, Cindy Kington, PT, CHT explains how InVivoLink helps Maury Regional Hospital collect pre- and post-operative data on patient function and outcomes.  According to Cindy, InVivoLink allows the physicians and therapists at Maury Regional to coordinate patient care in new ways that improve functional outcomes and drive better patient satisfaction.

InVivoLink will be focusing on its collaborative implant registry and care coordination platform which is designed to improve quality and remove waste across the orthopedic episode of care.