PROMs promote health gain and patient involvement

doi:10.1136/bmj.39486.488993.3A

BMJ 2008;336:344 (16 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.39486.488993.3A

Letters

Measuring patient care

PROMs promote health gain and patient involvement

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Hawkes seems to have swallowed the paternalistic line that whatdoctors do to patients is more important than the outcome asperceived by them.¹ How can we know if a process brings benefitsand continues to improve it without measuring the outcome, andhow can we rely on process alone when the evidence shows suchwidespread variation and inconsistency in process in clinicalpractice? For patients, there is much more to success than aliveor dead. How often have we heard: "They said my hip replacementwent well, but I am now housebound" or "He says I have a goodflow rate in my bypass graft, but I still get pain at 10 metres"?

Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs), unlike most of theother clinical measures used traditionally (readmissions, infectionrates, adverse incidents, etc), usually measure health gain—whatactually happens to most patients who interface with the healthcaresystem. BUPA . . . [Full text of this article]

Andrew J Vallance-Owen, group medical director

¹ BUPA, London WC1A 2BA

vallanca@bupa.com