Note from the Editor

The year 2017 marks Arthroplasty Today's third year of publication. Our journal, published by the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) and Elsevier, places a high priority on rapid publication and seeks to publish a broad range of content while focusing on the case report.

This year, Arthroplasty Today again increased the number of manuscripts published because of amplified submission of excellent papers. Starting with the December issue, our PubMed Central indexed open-access journal will publish 10 Case Reports and 10 Original Research manuscripts in each quarterly edition in addition to specialty articles like Systematic Reviews and Brief Communications. We also worked this year with our sister journal, the Journal of Arthroplasty, to facilitate the option of manuscript submission transfer between the journals. Now if a manuscript is declined by one of the journals, and the authors want to submit it to the other journal, they do not have to fill in a new Conflict of Interest statement. Both publications already share similar formatting which also makes it easy to re-submit a manuscript.

Arthroplasty Today is the official journal of the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR), and 2017 marked the second year of publication of data from AJRR in our June issue. This year's manuscript, “Infection burden in total hip and knee arthroplasties: an international registry-based perspective,” by Bryan D. Springer, MD and co-authors, was recognized as the “best poster presentation” at the 6th International Congress of Arthroplasty Registries, the annual meeting of the International Society of Arthroplasty Registries. In addition to this original research, AJRR Director of Analytics, Karen Etkin, PhD and Arthroplasty Today associate editor and AJRR board member, Dr. Springer, co-authored a 5-year perspective editorial on AJRR. Finally, in this last issue of the year, we again publish an Executive Summary of the 2017 AJRR Annual Report with a link to the full text of the report on the Arthroplasty Today home page (ArthroplastyToday.org).

The September issue each year focuses on a worldwide perspective, and this year we published manuscripts from authors representing 8 different countries, bringing up the grand total to 17 different countries represented over the past 3 years. Stefano A. Bini, MD, Chair of the AAHKS International Committee, highlights the origin of the AAHKS International Committee and how our international membership has grown in his editorial, “The genesis of an idea: The International Committee of the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons.” Dr. Bini, an Associate Editor of Arthroplasty Today, explains the role of our journal in the very successful efforts of our association to embrace a worldview of our profession and collaborate with colleagues from across the globe. Content from an open-access journal like Arthroplasty Today, available for no cost to anyone with internet access, is one key in this endeavor.

This December theme issue contains a number of case reports demonstrating failures of arthroplasty technology. The past year was a troubling year for failed technology, as both the lay press [1], [2] and also an orthopaedic surgeon [3] reported troubling flaws in the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) post-market surveillance program. Scientific analysis further showed that reporting flaws and inadequacies affect response even when adverse events are reported [4], and the FDA has limits as far as the available research when making approval decisions [5].

Vincent J. Devlin, MD, Deputy Director, Division of Orthopedic Devices at the FDA presents a guest editorial highlighting the process and value of volunteer physician reporting to the FDA for such failures, entitled “Update regarding opportunities for orthopedic surgeons to contribute to postmarket surveillance of potential safety issues for orthopedic medical devices marketed in the United States.” A publication in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in 2010 [6], co-authored by A. Seth Greenwald, D. Phil (Oxon) from our own Editorial Board, previously outlined the process for surgeons to report an adverse event to the FDA. A journal such as ours that focuses on the case report, and is able to both publish rapidly and reach a large, like-minded audience of arthroplasty specialists, is often a repository for early or unforeseen failures of implants. Because of this responsibility, our Editorial Board has unanimously agreed to add to the manuscript acceptance correspondence a reminder to consider reporting the failure, if appropriate, to the MedWatch program of the FDA. We remind authors, without assigning blame and without an official policy of scrutiny other than peer review, to consider voluntarily reporting any failures published in Arthroplasty Today. The Editorial Board agreed that it is our moral obligation to protect our patients, and part of this obligation is to consider reporting appropriate failures of implants to the FDA. Our acceptance letter now includes this statement: “Note from the Editorial Board: Arthroplasty Today encourages authors to report any product problems to MedWatch at www.fda.gov/Medwatch when there is a concern about the quality, authenticity, performance, or safety of any medication or device.”

This year our leadership team also addressed the possibility of offering continuing medical education (CME) credits for reading Arthroplasty Today and taking a brief test on our website. In the 2017 AAHKS membership needs survey, 68% of respondents said they would like CME credit through an AAHKS journal. Our effort to add a CME offering was spearheaded by Thomas J. Blumenfeld, MD, a member of our Editorial Board. Further analysis and discussions are underway to bring this concept to fruition.

The success and progress of our journal would not be possible without a team effort.

I would like to thank all of our reviewers for their excellent and timely evaluations this year as Arthroplasty Today centers on their hard work. A personal note of thanks also to AAHKS President Mark I. Froimson, MD, MBA, the AAHKS Board of Directors, AAHKS Publications Committee Chair Gregory J. Golladay, MD, the AAHKS Publications Committee, Arthroplasty Today Managing Editor Taylor Bowen, AAHKS Executive Director Michael J. Zarski, JD, Elsevier Senior Publisher Matt Giampoala, and Associate Editors Stefano A. Bini, MD, Mark J. Spangehl, MD, and Bryan D. Springer, MD. Elsevier and Graphic World Inc. Journal Manager Shanna Sever, who has worked very hard with our journal over the past 2 years, has passed the mantle of Journal Manager to Sara Miller from Elsevier. I would like to thank Shanna for her excellent professional service and wish her success in her future endeavors. I also want to say a special thank you this year to AAHKS Publications Liaison Denise Smith Rodd for her outstanding support of Arthroplasty Today and specifically of my role as Editor-in-Chief. She is a true “Jill-of-all trades” whom I can depend on for myriad tasks vital to Arthroplasty Today. From “editing the editor” to managing the many side projects necessary for a growing journal, Denise has done an outstanding job and performed her complex role with alacrity.