Patient-Reported Outcomes

When researchers study healthcare, they usually use information they receive from hospitals and doctors. Unfortunately, this often leaves out the most important voice—the patient’s. Only patients can tell if the treatment actually improved their quality of life or if they were satisfied with the way treatment turned out.

CERTAIN is dedicated to making healthcare delivery more relevant to the real lives of real patients. Through the collection and analysis of patient-reported outcomes (PROs), CERTAIN's PROs in Practice Initiative helps complete the picture of the patient experience that extends beyond a doctor’s visit or hospital stay in several ways:

  • Develop and sustain meaningful and interactive collaborations with the Patient Advisory Network to help inform the research process – from the questions asked to the dissemination of research findings.
  • Develop best practices for the use of patient-reported outcomes in clinical practice, including considerations for the workflows that support PRO data capture, the technology that supports PRO reporting and integration into clinical decision-making, and the health system governance of PRO measures and infrastructure.   
  • Facilitate real-time use of PROs in Practice to assist patient and clinician communication and decision-making at the point-of-care, in addition to developing benchmarking data for improving healthcare.