Using patient-reported outcomes in clinical practice: proceedings of an International Society of Quality of Life Research conference

Abstract

In recent years there has been growing interest in the use of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in daily clinical practice as an aid in detecting physical and psychosocial problems that might otherwise be overlooked, to monitor disease and treatment effects, to improve the quality of care, and ultimately to enhance the health and well-being of patients. The provision of timely, systematic information derived directly from patients about their physical and psychosocial health has been demonstrated to have a salutary effect, to a greater or lesser degree, on a cascade of outcomes including, from most proximal to most distal: patient– health care provider communication; provider awareness of patients’ health problems, patient management (e.g., referral patterns, medication prescription, counseling, etc.), patient and health care provider satisfaction, and patients’ health-related quality of life over time. The development of increasingly flexible and efficient assessment systems based on modern test theory and the emergence of sophisticated, user-friendly data capture systems (e.g., touch screen computers, interactive voice response telephone interviews, web-based surveys, etc.) facilitate the adoption of PROs in the clinical practice setting. In recognition of this relatively new and potentially fruitful area of PRO application, the International Society for Quality of Life Research organized an international conference in Budapest, Hungary on June 24–26, 2007. This three-day conference was intended to: summarize the state-of-the-art of PRO assessment in daily clinical practice; identify gaps in our knowledge base (theoretical, empirical, and experiential) with regard to using PROs in clinical practice; develop a research agenda for improving the science and practicality of PRO assessment in clinical practice; and involve various stakeholders in the discussion of PROs in clinical practice. The conference began with a half-day program of workshops, followed by two days of plenary sessions and proffered poster sessions. For each plenary session, there were two invited speakers. The major topic areas addressed during the conference included: (1) theoretical underpinnings for using PROs in clinical practice; (2) applications of PROs in clinical practice; (3) content of PROs in clinical practice; (4) logistics of collecting PROs in clinical practice; (5) training health care professionals to use and interpret data from PROs in clinical practice; and (6) evaluating the effectiveness of PROs in clinical practice. A series of papers has been generated from this conference, four of which are published in the current issue of Quality of Life Research, with the remaining four scheduled for publication in early 2009. We hope that, taken together, these papers will provide both an overview of the state-of-the-art of PRO assessment in clinical practice and an agenda for future PRO research and applications in this setting. On behalf of the members of the conference planning committee (Michael Brundage, David Osoba, Galina Velikova, Albert Wu, and Susan Yount),