Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs)
An internationally recognised initiative to use digital technology to monitor patient journeys through care.
These are increasingly central to how the success of care is measured and is a key and expanding expectation across health care systems globally.
Care Response is an internationally used web based system to automatically collect patient reported outcomes.
It was developed in the UK by Jonathan Field who successfully obtained his PhD via strong research links with Health Sciences University.
Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs)
PROMs are measures that are designed to record key changes in patients’ symptoms and status while undergoing and after clinical care. These are increasingly central to how the success of care is measured and is a key and expanding expectation across health care systems globally.
There is evidence that the use of PROMs may directly affect a patients success with treatment by improving the focus of care on things an individual patient feels is important and enhancing the relationship between patient and care giver.
Historically these measures were seldom used with anecdotes and clinicians’ opinions standing in for the patient’s own voices as to how well they thought the treatment had gone. Clearly the best person to ask about whether things had improved or not would be the person with the problem (i.e. the patient) but it is only recently that such measures have been routinely employed outside of big research studies.
Commitment
The NHS is now committed to using outcomes routinely across a range of conditions with musculoskeletal problems such as back pain and neck pain using the MSK Health Questionnaire developed by Keele University. However, one of the problems in using paper based questionnaires is the amount of work and logistics involved in collating, following up, handing out and typing in of patients outcomes during care. In order to address this problem a web based system that automatically emails patients links to questions at key points during their care journey was developed as part of a PhD supervised jointly at Health Sciences University and Portsmouth University.
Over the course of the last 7 years this system has enabled the description of what happens to back pain and neck pain in particular to be carried out amongst tens of thousands of patients attending for care, mainly in chiropractic practices across the UK, but increasingly internationally.
The Health Sciences University was also the birthplace of the Bournemouth Questionnaire (BQ) which has been used extensively as a key outcome measure amongst clinicians looking after spinal pain patients.
This area of research has generated multiple publications and PhDs and puts Health Sciences University academics at the forefront of electronic PROM collection in MSK related conditions.
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Professor Steve Urry is a Visiting Professor at Health Sciences University on the MSc Podiatry (pre-registration) course.
HSU will be delighted to welcome students, staff, alumni and members of the public to attend the lecture by Professor Stewart Cotterill.
Kerry Ewins-Strowger is a Second Year MSc Podiatry (pre-registration) student at Health Sciences University. Kerry shares the personal story that led her to study podiatry. She also tells us about how she has recently used VR as a distraction method at a clinical placement.
Taryn Ingleheart-Lee is in her first year of the BSc (Hons) Radiography (Radiotherapy and Oncology) course at HSU.
Dexter Sykes is a 2nd year BSc (Hons) Radiography (Diagnostic Imaging) student. He tells us about the importance of Diagnostic Radiographers.
