5.2 Patient-reported Outcomes

Question 1

Give 5 reasons why it is important to measure healthcare

Answer 1

See the need for it in different areas
Target resources 
Assess effectiveness 
Evaluate quality of healthcare
Use evaluations to measure value for money of treatment 
Monitor patient's progress

Question 2

Give 2 negatives for recording mortality data

Answer 2

Not always recorded accurately

Cannot measure quality of care

Question 3

Give 2 negative for recording morbidity data

Answer 3

Not always accurate

No information about patient experience

Question 4

What is a Patient-Reported Outcome Measure (PROM)?

Answer 4

Measures of health directly from patients. Focus on patient concerns and QoL

Question 5

Give 5 positives of PROMs

Answer 5

Can be used clinically
Assess cost-benefit
Use data in audits
Measure health status of populations 
Compare interventions in a clinical trial 
Measure service quality 
Improve management 
Use to compare health providers

Question 6

What 4 procedures do NHS England have PROMs for?

Answer 6

Hip replacement
Knee replacement
Groin hernia
Varicose vein removal

Question 7

Give 2 challenges that PROMs face

Answer 7

Need to minimise time and cost of data collection and analysis
Need high levels of patient participation
Need to expand to other areas

Question 8

What is a ‘generic instrument’ for measuring patient QoL?

Answer 8

A tool used to assess perceptions of general health and has questions on all aspects of healthcare. Used for a whole population

Question 9

What is a ‘specific instrument’ for measuring patient QoL?

Answer 9

Evaluates a series of health dimensions specific to a disease

Question 10

Give 3 positives of generic instruments

Answer 10

Used for a wide range of conditions
Used if there is no recognised specific instrument
Can compare between groups
Assess health of entire populations

Question 11

Give 3 negatives of generic instruments

Answer 11

Less detail than specific
Loss of relevance
Less acceptable to patients
Less sensitive to changes from an intervention

Question 12

What is the Short Form 36 item questionnaire (SF-36)?

Answer 12

A reliable and valid questionnaire widely used in research.

Question 13

What is the SF-36 used for?

Answer 13

General health assessment 
Patient management 
Resource allocation 
Audit tool 
Clinical tool

Question 14

How does the SF-36 work?

Answer 14

Items grouped under 8 dimensions

Responses to the questions scored and questions each dimension are added together out of a score of 100.

Question 15

Give 3 positives of the SF-36

Answer 15

Consistent, short, acceptable to people, responsive to change

Question 16

What is the EuroQoL (EQ-5D)?

Answer 16

Generic measure used to provide an individual simple descriptive profile. Scores patients between 1 and 0 with 1 being perfect health and 0 as dead. It uses 5 dimentions

Question 17

Give 3 positives of specific instruments

Answer 17

Very relevant
Sensitive to change
Acceptable to patients

Question 18

Give 3 negatives of specific instruments

Answer 18

Cannot use generally
Limited comparisons
May not detect unexplained effects