Top 100 most cited articles on Patient Reported Experience Measures (PREM): insights and perspectives

Patient experience is fundamental to Patient-Centered Care (PCC). Although prior bibliometric research studies have focused on various aspects of PCC, a comprehensive analysis of PREM articles is required to understand its impact on the clinical practices. This study aims to analyze the top 100 most-cited PREM articles to examine the critical studies and related trends.

The 100 most cited articles on PREM were gathered from the Web of Science using a combination keyword search approach. The following information was extracted: study design, sample size, topic, number of citations, authorship, country, year of publication, journal title, and dimensions included in these PREM instruments. The VOSviewer software was used to generate graphical bibliometric networks.

The citation count of the top 100 PREM articles varied from 20 to 775 citations. 21 articles had received a minimum of 100 citations. All the articles were in English, and out of these 45% were from the USA. The cross-sectional study (69%) was the most common study design, and the impact of treatment (44%) was the most frequent topic. The common PREM instruments used were customized PREM questionnaires (16%) and HCAHPS (10%).

This bibliometric research showed that the area of PREM is far from being saturated. The authors have attempted to provide an overview of global PREM research. Future research should focus on studies from underdeveloped and developing countries to develop condition-specific PREM tools. Longitudinal researches among special populations and studies in day-care and outpatient settings are recommended in future.