Becker's ASC Review

62 ORTHOPEDICS Jury still out on superiority of orthopedic robots, Johns Hopkins surgeon says By Carly Behm Julius Oni, MD, a joint replacement specialist, said he's excited by robotic technology and how data analytics can be used to improve care. Dr. Oni, medical director of orthopedics at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, discussed the promise of robotics on the 'Becker's Healthcare Spine and Orthopedic Podcast.' Question: What are some of the most interesting new technologies and platforms that you're seeing come out today? Dr. Julius Oni: I think with joint replacements, some of the robotic platforms that are being used or presented to us recently are very interesting, and they're certainly going to help us do the surgeries that we do better. I think it's certainly the future. It's going to help us not have to guess at all and to place implants in exactly the positions that we really want to place them in. What's most interesting about robotic platforms is that they are going to really give us a lot of data about the surgeries that we've done, and by evaluating that data, we will be able to better serve our future patients. I think the jury is still somewhat out on the superiority of clinical outcomes with robotic surgeries versus conventional surgeries. But certainly I think we will see what the long-term data show, and certainly we will be able to get a lot more information from these surgeries and hopefully fine-tune the surgeries and make them even better in the years to come. n 24-physician orthopedic group hit with data breach By Alan Condon M arion-based Central Indiana Orthopedics has suffered a data breach that may have exposed the protected health information of up to 83,705 individuals. On Oct. 16, the 24-physician group noticed suspicious activity on its computer network. An investigation found that an unauthorized party accessed certain files on the practice's network. The compromised information varies by file, but may include names, addresses, Social Security numbers and limited health information. On March 7, the practice be- gan sending data breach notifications to all individuals whose information was contained in the affected files. To guard against future incidents, the group contacted a cybersecurity firm, changed administrative credentials, restored operations safely and improved security mea- sures. n New Jersey hospital gets Center of Excellence nods for spine, joint robotic surgery By Carly Behm H udson Regional Hospital received five Center of Excellence designations from the Surgical Review Corp., including two robotic nods. The Secaucus, N.J.-based hospital received designation for robotic joint replacement and robotic spine surgery, ac- cording to an April 6 LinkedIn post. The hospital is report- edly the first in the world to be recognized by the Surgical Review Corp. for robotic spine surgery. The hospital's other Center of Excellence designations are for minimally invasive gynecology, bariatrics and minimally invasive surgery. n

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