An Integrated Model of Intelligent Medical Service for Total Joint Replacement

With the aging population, the needs for total joint replacement are increasing. On the basis of 2000-to-2014 data from National Inpatient Sample (NIS), primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is projected to grow by 85% to 1.26 million procedures in the United States by 2030. In a 2012 report of Orthopaedic Industry, and the global sales of joint replacement products exceeded $49.3 billion, with knees taking about half of them. The high financial burden of joint replacement surgery on health care system highlights the importance of cost containment without compromising the quality of patient care.

Clinical pathways for total joint arthroplasty can reduce care variability and improve the quality of care. Taiwan's Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) has initiated a prospective payment system for TKA under diagnosis-related group (DRG) since 1997. It was found the length of hospital stay, and the medical expenditure could be reduced because standard clinical pathways were implemented in most hospitals. However, to optimize the results and meet with patients' expectation are more challenging currently than before because the length of hospitalization is markedly reduced and the standard care processes are accelerated. The accelerated programs for total joint arthroplasty are revolutionizing the standard clinical pathways. Patients can even be discharged from the hospital within one day after the surgery. While a successful joint replacement surgery depends on well-practiced clinical pathways delivered in a timely manner, patient's medical literacy should also have a significant impact for his or her recovery. Unfortunately, patients may acquire incorrect information from the internet or have unrealistic expectations before or during the hospitalization that may compromise the decision making and clinical results.

Recently, the emerging technologies of the electronic medical record and medical informatics have made challenges to the traditional healthcare models such as the clinical pathways. The integration of informatics technology also provides an opportunity to modernize the clinical pathways. But the effect of an interactive infotainment system on TKA is unknown. The purpose of this study was to analyze whether the implementation of an interactive infotainment system into a standard clinical pathway of TKA could influence the hospital course and the medical quality in an arthroplasty specialty ward.