Use of Patient-Reported Outcomes in Comparative Effectiveness Research

• Activity Number: 69
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Sunday, August 4, 2013 : 4:00 PM to 5:50 PM
• Sponsor: Biopharmaceutical Section
• Author(s): Joseph C. Cappelleri*+ and Demissie Alemayehu
• Companies: Pfizer Inc and Pfizer Inc
• Keywords: patient-reported outcomes ; comparative effectiveness research ; clinical care ; health policy ; psychometrics ; health status measures

Abstract

The goal of comparative effectiveness research (CER) is to explain the differential benefits and harms of alternative methods to prevent, diagnose, treat, and monitor a clinical condition or to improve the delivery of care. To inform decision making, patient-reported outcomes (PROs) have become standard tools for directly eliciting the patient experience in order to reflect outcomes that patients care about. Our objective is to discuss the value of PROs in the CER context, with emphasis on the types of measures that are likely to be useful, instrument selection, and key methodological challenges associated with using PROs. Important considerations are given for the analysis and interpretation of data. Emerging changes that may help to facilitate CER using PROs (such as implementation of electronic and personal health records, hospital and population-based registries, and national monitoring) are noted. The issues highlighted in this presentation are geared to enrich our understanding on how information derived from PROs is relevant within the CER context. Such information can be helpful in providing guidance to stakeholders in making informed care decisions.