In today's world of value-based health care, optimal assessments of functional outcomes are vital to best practice. For application to orthopaedic surgery, the assessments should be multifaceted in order to maximize safe and effective interventions, especially when new and innovative aspects are included. As such, this special focus issue of the Journal of Knee Surgery covers key preclinical and clinical outcomes assessments focused on knee function. Importantly, these assessments include direct measures, indirect measures, and measures of related variables such as pain, diagnostic imaging, and satisfaction metrics. I would also strongly encourage readers to review the recent Journal of Knee Surgery special focus issue (issue 37.7) on patient-centered care in knee surgery in order to include the patients' perspectives on functional outcomes for optimal interpretation and application of the data. I strongly believe that this is key to determining and implementing evidence- and value-based care in orthopaedics.

I would like to sincerely thank all of the authors who contributed to this special focus issue. Each is a leading expert in their field, and I appreciate the time and care they took to provide the tools, resources, and mechanisms needed to best assess functional outcomes for patients.

Article published online:
06 June 2024

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