Introduction In view of the legal claim for quality assurance in Germany, complete documentation and a professional evaluation of shoulder arthroplasty procedures are indispensable.

Under the auspices of German AO International (DAOI), the German Society of Orthopeadics and Orthopeadic Surgery (DGOOC), the German Society of Trauma Surgery (DGU) and the German Society of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery (DVSE), and in collaboration with the MEM Institute for Evaluative Research in Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Bern, the nationwide online Shoulder Arthroplasty Register was implemented.

Register setup The German Shoulder Arthroplasty Register consists of three online questionnaires, covering surgery for primary shoulder arthroplasty, follow-up examination, and revision surgery. Registered surgeons can access the questionnaires via Internet. For easier administration in clinics, paper copies of the questionnaires are also available. Online validation procedures check all entered data for completeness and plausibility. After passing these checks, data are sent to the central database. The centralization of the data collection is crucial for data unification and validity.

Advantages Participating surgeons benefit from descriptive real-time statistics of their patients, and constant benchmarking of their performance in comparison with the whole register is possible. With the documentation of complications, implant failures and revision surgery, quality assurance reports can be easily produced. Furthermore, X-ray images of special cases can be uploaded.

Perspective The German Shoulder Arthroplasty Register was launched in January 2006 and documentation is ongoing. First scientific results will be available in 2007.