The Swedish Fracture Register – ten years of experience and 600,000 fractures collected in a National Quality Register

BACKGROUND: Before the creation of the Swedish Fracture Register (SFR), there was no national quality register that prospectively collects data regarding all types of fractures regardless of treatment in an emergency setting. Observational data on fractures registered in a sustainable way may provide invaluable tools for quality improvements in health care and research. DESCRIPTION: Ten years after its implementation, the Swedish Fracture Register has 100% coverage among orthopaedic and trauma departments in Sweden. The completeness of registrations reached in 2020 69–96% for hip fractures at the different departments, with the majority reporting a completeness above 85%. The Swedish Fracture Register is a fully web-based national quality register created and run by orthopaedic professionals, with financial support from public healthcare providers and the government. All users have full access to both the registration platform and all aggregated statistics in real time. The web-based platform was created for use in health quality registers and it has easily gained acceptance among users. The register has gradually developed by the addition of more fracture types and skeletal parts. Research activity is high and 31 scientific publications have been published since 2016. The strategy from the start was to publish validation data and basic epidemiological data. However, over the past few years, publications on outcomes, such as re-operations and mortality, have been published and four register-based, randomised, controlled trials are ongoing. CONCLUSION: It is possible to create a fracture register, to gain professional acceptance and to collect fracture data in a sustainable way on a national level if the platform is easy to use. Such a platform can also be used as a randomisation platform for prospective studies.