Patient Reported Outcomes

Question 1

Why measure health outcomes?

Answer 1

Indication of need for healthcare
Target resources to where they’re needed most
Assess effectiveness of interventions
Evaluate quality of health services
Monitor patients’ progress
Use effectiveness evaluations to get a better value for money

Question 2

What factors are used to measure health

Answer 2

Mortality: deaths and survivals
Morbidity: how much patients might suffer from symptoms & side effects
Patient based outcomes: their own experiences of their health

Question 3

What are patient reported outcomes?

Answer 3

status of a patient’s health condition from the patient’s POV without influence from healthcare staff.

Question 4

Why should we use patient based outcomes?

Answer 4

Need to focus on patient’s concerns & priorities

Biomedical tests are just 1part of the picture

More likely to find negate impacts of care on them

Question 5

How do PROs benefit clinical experiences?

Answer 5

Increase patient satisfaction and care
Improves patient-clinician communication
Less frequent healthcare visits
Improved outcomes (survival & QoL)

Question 6

How can you define HRQoL?

Answer 6

Impact of disease and treatment upon a patient’s life from a patient’s POV. Reflects individual’s values & priorities and how they are experiencing their life.

Question 7

How could you collect PROMs and what important properties must the PROMs have?

Answer 7

Quantitative approach that uses questionnaires (instruments/scales)

• reliability
• validity

Question 8

Name the types of PROMs.

Answer 8

Generic: used in any patient population
Specific: disease/condition; site/dimension; symptom specific populations

Question 9

What dimensions do the EuroQol (EQ5D) ask you to rate in ‘no problem’, ‘some/moderate problems’, ‘extreme problems’?

Answer 9

• mobility
• self care
• usual activities
• pain/discomfort
• anxiety/depression

Question 10

What are the advantages of generic instruments

Answer 10

Used for range of health problems
Used if no disease specific instrument
Enable comparisons across treatment & condition groups
Detect unexpected +ve & -ve effects of intervention
Assess health of populations

Question 11

What are the disadvantages of generic instruments?

Answer 11

Generic =less detailed
Less sensitive to changes that occur due to intervention
Less acceptable to patients