The American Spine Registry (ASR) is a collaborative effort of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) on a national quality improvement registry for spine care. Both organizations have joint ownership and leadership representation in this effort. The ASR will transform the Quality Outcomes Database (QOD) Spine Registry, currently the nation’s largest spine Registry, into a more far-reaching program that facilitates the participation of all North American spine surgeons in a shared, quality data-collection platform.

The ASR leverages the unique data science capabilities of the AANS with the operational expertise of the AAOS Registry Program. The ASR allows both organizations to enhance the scalability, sustainability, ease-of-use and relevance of national spine data collection efforts and facilitates intelligent data use by engaging multiple health care stakeholders in this joint initiative. The participating organizations expect this collaboration will lead to an enhanced ability to use the accumulated information to improve patient care, advance the science of spine surgery, and address the challenges of an evolving, value-based care delivery system.

Since spine surgery is performed by both neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons, the development of a common data platform fuels the creation of a consistent, reliable quality information source for all major stakeholders, including physicians, patients, payors, regulatory groups, and industry.

The shared vision for the ASR is to:

  • Utilize data to to establish benchmarks to test clinical performance and the validity of various quality measures, which are efforts critical to a value-based health care system
  • Provide feedback to providers that allows them to continuously improve their practice and health care outcomes using methods applicable to all practice settings
  • Reduce data reporting burdens on physicians and allow reuse of data for regulatory requirements and continuous quality improvement programs
  • Help inform gaps in knowledge and define areas for further education and research