DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I was diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis. When is a knee replacement appropriate?
ANSWER: Osteoarthritis is an extremely common condition affecting over 500 million people worldwide. The knee is the most frequently affected joint. Knee osteoarthritis occurs when protective cartilage in the knee wears down leading to inflammation and pain. Commonly, patients will have bone spurs, and the normal shape of their knee is disrupted.
Symptoms of knee osteoarthritis may develop slowly, or in some patients it...
“There is just a moral imperative here, which is for patients, this is their information. They ought to be able to access it whenever they want,” said Micky Tripathi, the national coordinator for health information technology whose office crafted the requirement for the Department of Health and Human Services. “They also pay for it. They ought to be able to get things they pay for.”