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

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. …