Mass General Brigham’s Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement System: A Decade of Learnings

Abstract

This article describes the strategies that leaders at the Mass General Brigham (MGB) health system have used in launching a standardized patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) collection program in 2012, a major step in the value-based transformation of health care. This article documents many benefits to patients, clinicians, and payers from the effective design, collection, and use of PROMs. These benefits include shared decision-making aligned to patients’ goals; improving patient expectations about their likely experiences and outcomes from treatment; empowering patients to self-monitor during recovery; facilitating communication between physicians and patients about what matters most to patients; enhancing treatment by having PROMs embedded in the patients’ electronic health record; and reducing disparities in access, treatment, and outcomes for previously underserved racial and ethnic groups. For payers, PROMs allow payments to be based on patient outcomes. By continuously answering each stakeholder’s “what’s in it for me” question, MGB has taken an important step toward building a learning health system to equitably achieve health outcomes that align with patients’ goals for their health. Working together, the MGB PROMs Program and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Patient-Reported Outcomes, Value, and Experience Center, a transdisciplinary PROMs research hub, plan to continue their efforts to improve and expand the use of PROMs to accelerate the shift toward accountable, patient-centered care.