10 Years of the German Arthroplasty Registry-EPRD: what has been achieved?

The German Arthroplasty Registry (EPRD) has been accumulating data on hip and knee arthroplasty procedures for 10 years. Even though the EPRD is a voluntary registry, it currently includes more than 2 million documented surgical procedures in Germany. This ranks the EPRD as the third largest registry in the world. The highly granular classification of the EPRD product database, which currently includes more than 70,000 components, is set to become the international standard. The linkage of hospital case data with specific implant component data and routine data from health insurance providers enables robust arthroplasty survival analyses. This provides hospitals, manufacturers, and the specialist community with access to specific results that contribute to improving arthroplasty quality. The registry is gaining increasing international recognition by publishing in peer-reviewed journals. An application procedure also allows "third-party" data access. Furthermore, the EPRD has also established an early warning system to detect anomalies in outcome. Software-based detection of potential implant component mismatches allows notification of hospitals concerned. In 2023, the EPRD will trial extending its data collection to include patient satisfaction surveys (i.e., patient-reported outcome measures), and subsequently to surgeon-specific data.