Patient-Reported Outcomes Measures: An Introduction for Clinicians

Abstract

Patient-reported outcome measures contain information that comes directly from the patient without interpretation by anyone else. These measures are an important part of a clinicians' arsenal of assessment approaches and are critical in the development of patient-centered approaches to intervention. In this introduction to patient-reported outcome measurement tools, a history is provided of this approach to measurement and its place within the context of clinical research and practice. The process of instrument development and application will be reviewed, along with examples of measurement tools from the field of neurological communication disorders. This introduction is supplemented by references that provide interested readers with more detailed information.