Health status and utility measurement viewed from the right brain: experience from the rheumatic diseases

Questionnaires for measuring function, health status, and quality of life have been developed for the rheumatic and musculoskeletal disorders. These new measures are as valid and as reliable as traditional measures of clinical status in clinical trials and health services research and add a valuable dimension to outcome assessment. However, they have limitations for use in patient care. Questionnaires cannot determine the etiologic basis of functional disability; nor cover any one function in enough depth; nor deal with the relative nature of function; nor account for the differences in functional priorities. Questionnaires are statistical approaches and based on normative model; patient care is humanistic emphasizing differences. Nevertheless, the interaction between psychometric approaches and concerns of patient care is a necessary and desirable goal for all we seek to accomplish with clinical investigation.