4 Reasons To Avoid Bonesmart Knee Replacement Forum
Advice on whether to have knee replacement surgery or how best to recover from the surgery, seems to be everywhere, but all the information tends to sound the same.
{Enter BoneSmart® Knee Replacement Forum}
BoneSmart® is the most recognized patient forum for all things knee replacement.
There you can get help and advice from other people just like yourself who have experiences to share and hard-earned wisdom to dispense. You’ll be an insider to what really goes on and privy to the real deal ups and downs of surgery recovery, good things to know before you sign on for the actual surgery.
Finally, a knee replacement forum to get unbiased information from people without an agenda…
but is it really?
1. BoneSmart® Receives Limited Funding From Orthopedic Manufacturers
BoneSmart® receives limited funding from the following list of orthopedic manufacturers: Zimmer Biomet, Medtronic, Conformis, smith&nephew, Don Joy Othropedics, CeramTec and MicroPort Orthopedics.
While BoneSmart does receive limited support from organizations including orthopedic manufacturers, the manufacturers are not otherwise affiliated with BoneSmart.org and cannot be held responsible for the content contained herein. This website’s content is managed by BoneSmart.
But who owns BoneSmart®?
According to BoneSmart®, it is part of the consumer outreach division of “The Foundation Advanced Research Medicine, Inc. (FARM)”
Googling that exact name, turns up nothing, an extremely rare find.
However, more research reveals that the official name is “The Foundation for Advancement in Research in Medicine, Inc (FARM).
How odd that BoneSmart® would incorrectly reprint its parent name on the website.
Follow The Money2. BoneSmart® receives most of it’s funding from FARM
When I finally located the parent website for FARM, a non-profit organization, I learned that BoneSmart®
is an international consumer awareness campaign to help patient-consumers learn about the exciting new advances in hip and knee implant materials in 2005. Using the powerful reach of video, radio, television, print, CD-ROM and the Internet, BoneSmart® is a one-stop information and clinic and hospital referral network for patient-consumers looking for a user-friendly, neutral environment, to explore their options and find the doctor and implant that’s right for their needs. Clinics in the referral network have access to the program and marketing resources to use in their own outreach and patient education programs.
3. FARM is generously supported by all the same corporate manufacturers that support BoneSmart®
FARM is in essence, a shell organization that hides the fact that BoneSmart® is bankrolled by industry sources who use it as a clinic and hospital referral network among other things.
This arrangement allows them to donate money liberally to a non-profit (tax deductible of course) and maintain the illusion that BoneSmart® is a non-partisan, objective source of information rather then an industry sponsored forum cheerleading the promotion of knee replacement surgery.
FARM also “actively pursues revenue sharing relationships with companies and other organizations who share their goal of improving the lives of people with orthopedic disabilities.”
interestingly, Richard Warner, the CEO of FARM, is also the CEO of Joint Replacement Centers of America, LLC a start up for profit venture capitalizing on the growth of the joint replacement industry by building free standing outpatient surgical centers across America.
4. Guidestar, a non-profit watchdog group blows the whistle
This review of FARM by Guidestar in 2014 is lengthy but worth the read.
How is it that the CEO who owns the ‘Bone Smart’ website/message board needs over a million a year to finance that? Seriously, it does not cost a fraction of that much to run a website and message board unless of course the excess ‘expenses’ associated with it go toward SALARY. His status as ‘non profit’ is also exploited by him for FOR PROFIT endeavors such as: jrhamedical.com/
[Since this was written the jrhamedical.com domain is no longer active]
He needs to be more transparent and disclose what his salary is and also what his FOR PROFIT financial interests are for having this non profit org.
So here’s a guy who’s got MULTI MILLIONS coming in salary for his for profit endeavors who has set up a ‘non profit’ to promote the joint replacement industry (for profit industries) via corporate sponsors and requesting more millions–and from the general public of patients mind you. He’s got enough of HIS OWN money to run his website.
Enough of these ‘non profit’ corp CEOs raking in cash like that. There oughta be more TRANSPARENCY laws.
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Savvy entrepreneur exploits loop holes of non profit status to promote for profit corporate endeavors.
CEO, Richard Warner has set up the non profit ‘charity’ corp: ‘FARM ortho’ under the premise of ‘helping people’ with joint problems as to help ‘educate’ them about the benefits of joint replacement via his website and message board; ‘Bone Smart’. In effect, he has set up a venue to PROMOTE the joint replacement INDUSTRY which is a FOR PROFIT industry and bring in more patient CONSUMERS to this industry for which he has vested financial interests in promoting. Hence the premise for it existing as non profit; ‘to help educate’ patients resolves to furthering his own financial interests in increasing the market share of potential patients and with that, garnering venture capital to develop and build for profit joint replacement centers. He is also on the board of directors and CEO of of start up venture to develop and build joint replacement centers which is clearly a ‘for profit’ endeavor.
Hence, I call into question the ‘altruistic’ premise of his non profit status that his website; ‘Bone Smart’ arises from the spirit of ‘charity’ or ‘education’ when it’s so closely tied into MARKETING the joint replacement INDUSTRY as to increase market share while this same non profit status is used in pursuit of venture capital to build and develop his for profit financial endeavors. Further investigation is needed as to which loop holes exist in which non profit status can be also EXPLOITED this way for personal financial gain in the way he is conducting.
It is an industry he has vested financial interests in given that he is also CEO and founder of a start up corporation aimed at developing and building joint replacement centers. His non profit ‘charity’ status aimed at ‘educating’ or ‘raising awareness’ to consumers on the value of joint replacement (he has the largest and most well visited patient website in that venue) resolves to a type of MARKETING the joint replacing industry as to increase the market share of patients. In turn, his ability to do that results in a type of ‘leverage’ where he can use his non profit charity status to further his own for profit financial goals in development and building of joint replacement hospitals (as to garner VENTURE CAPITAL) for such.
In that way, his non profit status is disingenuous given it is tied into promoting joint replacement while garnering private investors in his for profit corporate endeavors to develop and build profitable joint replacement centers.
Summary
BoneSmart® is an extremely compromised knee replacement forum promoting knee replacement surgery to the patient-consumer under the guise of neutrality and enabling its creators to leverage those community relationships to enrich themselves in related for-profit ventures.
By all means don’t be fooled into donating your hard earned money to this industry marketing tool! 
