There are increasing problems with access to both outpatient assessment and joint replacement surgery for patients with hip or knee osteoarthritis.
Data were collected on all patients seen at the Joint Clinic over a 2-year period with minimum 12-month follow-up. Patients were assessed by a nurse and a physiotherapist, baseline scores and demographic details collected, and an individualized personal care plan developed. Patients could be referred for a first specialist assessment (FSA) if their severity justified surgical assessment.
Three hundred fifty-eight patients were seen at Joint Clinic, of whom 150 (44%) had hip and 189 (56%) had knee OA. The mean age was 67.4 years and there were 152 men (45%) and 187 women (55%). The mean baseline Oxford score was 19.8 (standard deviation 8.2). Fifty-four patients were referred directly to FSA (mean Oxford score 13.0, standard deviation 6.7) and 89 after a subsequent review. The scores of patients referred for FSA were significantly worse than those managed in the Joint Clinic (P < .001). Of the 143 referred for FSA, 115 underwent or were awaiting surgery, 18 were recommended surgery but scored below prioritization threshold, and 10 were not recommended surgery. The Oxford scores of the 194 patients managed non-operatively improved from 22.0 to 25.0 (P = .0013).
This study shows that the Joint Clinic was effective as a triage tool with 93% of those referred for FSA being recommended surgery. This has freed up surgeon time to see only those patients most in need of surgical assessment.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 16 August 2019.
All research outputs
#8,537,346
of 25,382,440 outputs
Outputs from The Journal of Arthroplasty
#2,087
of 4,623 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#156,813
of 444,941 outputs
Outputs of similar age from The Journal of Arthroplasty
#37
of 85 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,382,440 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 43rd percentile – i.e., 43% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,623 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.9. This one is in the 42nd percentile – i.e., 42% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 444,941 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 52% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 85 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 54% of its contemporaries.
