News & Events

Announcements for 2007

May 24, 2007 (historical)

Roadmap's PROMIS Highlighted in Journal Supplement

A special supplement devoted to the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS), an initiative of the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Roadmap for Medical Research, has been published in the journal Medical Care.

Managed by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), the PROMIS network is an integral part of the Re-engineering the Clinical Research Enterprise component of the Roadmap. The initiative seeks to develop ways to measure patient-reported symptoms such as pain and fatigue and aspects of health-related quality of life across a wide variety of chronic diseases and conditions. One of its dimensions is to develop a publicly available computerized adaptive test for the clinical research community. Many diseases involve pain, fatigue, and other difficult-to-measure quality of life outcomes, and the development of a test to measure changes in these symptoms will enhance clinical outcomes research and, ultimately, clinical practice.

The supplement (Medical Care 2007;45(5):Suppl 1:S1-54) includes the following articles, which describe the organization, structure and methodologies being used by PROMIS investigators:

  • Ader D. Developing the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS)

  • Cella D, et al. The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS): Progress of an NIH Roadmap cooperative group during its first two years

  • DeWalt D, et al. Evaluation of item candidates: The PROMIS qualitative item review

  • Reeve B, et al. Psychometric evaluation and calibration of health-related quality of life item banks: Plans for the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS)

  • Hayes R, et al. Item response theory analyses of physical functioning items in the medical outcomes study

  • Hill C, et al. Practical issues in the application of item response theory: A demonstration using items from the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) 4.0 generic core scales

  • Harniss M, et al. Considerations for developing interfaces for collecting patient-reported outcomes that allow the inclusion of individuals with disabilities

The NIH Roadmap sprang from 2002 discussions with many constituent groups to identify and prioritize the most pressing medical research problems that could be uniquely addressed by NIH as a whole. For more information on the Roadmap, visit http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/. For more information on PROMIS, visit http://www.nihpromis.org/.

The mission of the NIAMS, a part of the Department of Health and Human Services' National Institutes of Health, is to support research into the causes, treatment and prevention of arthritis and musculoskeletal and skin diseases; the training of basic and clinical scientists to carry out this research; and the dissemination of information on research progress in these diseases. For more information about NIAMS, call the information clearinghouse at (301) 495-4484 or (877) 22-NIAMS (free call) or visit the NIAMS Web site at http://www.niams.nih.gov.

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