The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS): Can We Finally Compare Apples to Oranges?

Legacy patient-reported outcome mea`sures lack standardization, resulting in difficulty comparing the results of diverse clinical outcome studies: "You can't compare apples to oranges." To address this concern, the National Institutes of Health initiated the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) to assess common dimensions of a wide range of diseases. PROMIS uses computer adaptive testing: A fluid questionnaire chooses subsequent questions based on the responses to previous questions to efficiently characterize outcomes using only 4 to 6 questions. This greatly reduces survey fatigue. Research correlating PROMIS to legacy measures is of value. For now, some questions may require more information than PROMIS can provide, in which case legacy measures could be preferred. In the future, developing and adding a utility score to PROMIS could assess "value" and allow decision analyses and cost-effectiveness analyses for diverse health interventions. In the end, PROMIS may allow us to compare apples to oranges.