• Better patient physical, functional, and emotional well-being.
• Better utilization of healthcare resources and services, such as fewer “preventable services” and shorter length of stay during hospitalization.
• Better detection of moderate-to-severe issues in several less observable (e.g., social and emotional) or subjective (e.g., pain and fatigue) PRO domains.
• Improved provider-patient communication as reported by providers.

Findings before 1997
However, these successes are mostly recent findings.  Prior to 1997, a number of studies have also evaluated the impact of using PRO and found no significant differences in health status and/or care process variables.  Several researchers have addressed the question of why earlier studies of the use of PROs in clinical practice have failed to consistently find the expected positive impacts and suggested possible solutions, including the use of “patient-centered” measures, provision of PRO results to the entire health care team, monitoring patients longitudinally, attention to barriers to the use of PRO by clinicians, and careful design of the report interface including provision of PRO score interpretation.  Other researchers have emphasized the importance of linking PRO scores with meaningful clinical information, such as the need to pair resource and patient management guidelines with PRO scores to make it easier for physicians to make patient management changes based on PRO results.

Clinical findings incorporated into BrightOutcome products
Collectively, the lessons learned from these earlier studies contributed to the success of the more recent studies.  Our products are designed with these lessons in mind and leveraged many ideas from the recent successes.  We believe that a multidisciplinary approach to PRO management is required to truly make a difference in patient care.  Therefore, we have strived to bring measurement theories, telemedicine and e-health technologies, patient education, and care coordination into a practical and integrated patient care solution.

Click here for a detailed review of published clinical studies.