Patient-reported Generic Health Status Measurement
The QualityMetric family of standardized, short-form (SF™) Generic Health Surveys (SF-36®, SF-36v2™,
SF-12®, SF-12v2™, SF-10™ for Children and the SF-8™ Health Surveys) are the most scientifically
validated and widely-used health status tools available. The strength of the SF™ tools is in their ability
to measure both physical and mental functioning and well-being - called "quality of life."
Providing pharmaceutical companies with standardized tools to measure PRO as part of a drug study or clinical trial
is of tremendous value to the Food and Drug Administration, the gatekeeper responsible for determining which drugs
make it to market. These same measurement tools have the ability to provide health management organizations and
disease management companies and clinicians with truly actionable insight into how a patient is faring.
Even though the SF tools have long been recognized as the gold standard for PRO measurement, QualityMetric's
team of measurement experts continuously seek opportunities to refine these tools, most recently by:
-
Standardizing the entire SF family of surveys so they are all scored on the same metric, providing directly
comparable results
-
Expanding its survey scoring algorithms, norms, and related educational materials so that pharmaceutical
companies, health plans, and disease management providers can better understand the disease burden of
their population as well as variations in treatment benefits
-
Creating shorter, scientifically valid surveys aimed at decreasing respondent burden
-
Providing measurement expertise to SF users through the Outcomes Insight™ Consulting Division
-
Developing educational programs for varying levels of health status measurement experience
Disease-specific Health Status Measurement
QualityMetric also has extensive product offerings to support disease-specific measurement.
There is an enormous need to arm clinical practitioners and researchers with tools capable of
measuring-in a standardized fashion-specific changes in disease severity in order to understand
which therapies are most clinically effective. Applying the same modern psychometric methods used
to improve the SF™ Generic Health Surveys, QualityMetric scientists have produced and validated
numerous disease-specific tools, with several more currently in development.
The First to Apply Dynamic, Computerized Adaptive Health Status Measurement (DYNHA®) to Healthcare
While Dr. Ware and his colleagues are well-aware of the value of actionable, evidence-based insight,
they also understand that the timing of that insight is crucial to whether an intervention can be fully
effective. This is why QualityMetric developed and introduced DYNHA - the first computerized adaptive health
assessment system using item response theory (IRT) models - to eliminate the tradeoff between more practical and
more precise assessment tools. QualityMetric first introduced the use of computerized adaptive testing (CAT) methods
in health status assessment in 1998 at the Medical Outcomes Trust conference in Boston with a mental health CAT measure,
and then again in 1999 in Barcelona to an international audience with a headache CAT measure (DYNHA-HIT).
DYNHA-based measures also have the advantage of making it possible to monitor data quality in "real time."
They are now used in pharmaceutical and clinical settings for health screening, to raise consumer and clinician
awareness, and for scholarly research.
Modes of Survey Administration
QualityMetric has advanced its health outcomes measurement offerings, allowing customers to administer select
SF Generic Health Surveys through our full suite of data-acquisition and scoring tools that includes:
- Web-based, online access (using amIheathy.com through our HOMS application)
- Faxing, which uses any standard fax device to upload and score
- PDA
- IVR
- Paper-and-pencil forms, complemented by:
-
SF Health Outcomes™ Scoring Software (desktop scoring application)
-
SF Online™ Scoring Service (Web-based scoring application)
Users of any of our technology solutions receive the added benefit of being able to utilize the QM
"gold standard" scoring engine. In addition, an immediate summary report is fed back to the
user, and our standard patient-level report and aggregate tabled data are available for viewing on amIhealthy.com.
Outcomes Insight™ Consulting
Clearly, for the science underlying QualityMetric's health measurement tools to be understood by a varied
marketplace, they must be well-documented and their interpretation relevant. Accordingly, QualityMetric's
measurement scientists are available to consult on science-based solutions for pharmaceutical, biotechnology
and medical device companies, managed care organizations, care providers, employers, and government agencies who
need practical, yet precise and scientifically valid, patient-reported data for risk screening and outcomes monitoring.
Protection of our Trademarks
Health assessment tools must be readily available as a condition of adoption. QualityMetric's approach to measurement
tool distribution is that of protecting the use of labels assigned to measures. This enables users to distinguish between
those that do - and do not - reproduce accepted standards which, in turn, permit meaningful interpretation of results.
Academic Licensing for Scholarly Research
By offering its tools to commercial ventures for a fee, QualityMetric is able to support the work of the research community
and thus advance the field of patient-reported health outcomes. QualityMetric recently established an Office of Grants and Scholarly
Research to provide its tools to academia at a discounted rate, while also building partnerships with scientific and clinical thought leaders
around the globe.
What's in Store
QualityMetric has developed the standards and applications of patient-reported health outcomes to meaningfully impact research,
the development and evaluation of new treatments, and the improvement of care delivery. Continued success will be based on:
-
Broadened application of patient-reported health outcomes
-
Development of all-in-one computerized adaptive assessment solutions combining generic and disease-specific surveys.
QualityMetric's Smart Measurement™ Solution will be customizable and will include data capture, scoring, analysis, interpretation,
and reporting (at both patient and aggregate levels) to ensure that the benefits of standardized, scientifically valid data are realized
throughout the full cycle of PRO measurement
-
A healthcare system that reflects the voice of the consumer/patient as a core value
