Structure of the EPRD

How is the EPRD structured?

The German Arthroplasty Registry (Endoprothesenregister Deutschland, in short “EPRD”) has been set up as an initiative of the German Society of Orthopaedics and Orthopaedic Surgery e.V. (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Orthopädie und Orthopädische Chirurgie e.V., in short “DGOOC”) together with the two biggest German public health insurance companies (AOK-Bundesverband GbR and Verband der Ersatzkassen e.V. vdek), together covering some 70% of all public health-insured German people, and together with industry represented by Bundesverband Medizintechnologie e.V. (in short “BVMed”), a German association of medical device manufacturers.

Together with its member companies, BVMed provides an implant database that is updated continuously. Implant manufacturers, vdek and the AOK-Bundesverband support the registry financially. The Deutsche Arthrose-Hilfe e.V. supported the establishment of the EPRD as part of its research funding. Furthermore, The German Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) supported the setup of the EPRD several times through subsidies.

The success of hip and knee arthroplasty operations has led to their widespread acceptance by both the general public and orthopaedic surgeons. In the hope of improving the quality of service, new implants are constantly being introduced. The EPRD aims to improve the quality of care delivered by monitoring arthroplasty procedures in Germany over time, with the long-term goal of reducing revision arthroplasty operations.

With the establishment of the EPRD, Germany commits to the scientific principle of auditing one of the most frequently performed public health procedures in the field of elective surgery. The prevalence of elective knee and hip arthroplasty surgery in Germany (>450,000 surgeries p.a.) is comparable to that documented in other national joint registries.

Data collection by the EPRD in Germany is on a voluntary basis for all parties, i.e. patients (consent necessary), hospitals, manufacturers, and public health insurers. Through the collection of pseudonymized patient data and implant data via barcode scanning from hospitals, linked to information from industry´s product database, and supplemented with follow-up clinical data from the two participating public health insurers, a closed system of audit and survival analysis is thus established between participating hospitals, insurers and patients.

How does the EPRD work?

The EPRD is run by the management company EPRD Deutsche Endoprothesenregister gGmbH (in short “EPRD gGmbH”) which is a non-commercial entity. DGOOC is 100% shareholder of EPRD gGmbH, but all major decisions are made by a supervisory board called Executive Committee (in short “EC”). The EC is comprised of equal number of representatives of the DGOOC, of BVMed and of the two public health insurance companies. The EC may form committees from among its members, define their tasks and competency, and delegate decision-making competency to them. At the time being committees include the following permanent Working groups (WG).

  • WG Methodology
  • WG Analyses and Studies
  • WG Data Transfer between Health Insurance Companies and EPRD
  • WG Product Database
  • WG Outlier Evaluation
  • WG Secondary Data Usage

Detailed information on tasks and composition of working groups, as well as on procedures, is written down in the in the rules of operation of the EC of EPRD gGmbH.