[Application of patient-reported outcomes (PRO) in surgical clinical practice: current status, challenges and...

Patient-reported outcomes (PRO) refer to health status information directly reported by patients without interpretation by others. Characterized by subjectivity, directness, and multidimensionality, PRO comprehensively cover postoperative recovery dimensions including symptoms, function, psychology, and social health of patients, serving as an important supplement to the traditional surgical efficacy evaluation system. At present, PRO have been widely applied in various fields of surgery internationally, but their development is unbalanced among specialties, especially with a very low application proportion in general surgery. The application of PRO in Chinese surgical clinical practice is still in the initial stage, with core problems such as biased orientation of the evaluation system, lack of localized measurement tools, imperfect data collection system, and lagging clinical thinking and training system. This paper systematically introduces the core concepts and clinical value of PRO in surgery. By summarizing the definition, classification and essential characteristics of PRO, and based on the latest international research findings, it elaborates their clinical application value and practical status in surgery. Meanwhile, in view of the actual situation of surgical clinical practice in China, this paper analyzes the existing problems and practical challenges in the application and promotion of PRO, and explores the localized development path as well as targeted promotion strategies. These strategies include incorporating PRO into clinical guidelines and evaluation systems, developing and validating localized patient-reported outcome measures (PROM), establishing an intelligent data collection platform, improving the training system for surgeons and strengthening medical-nursing collaboration, and enhancing multidisciplinary cooperation. These efforts will further optimize the clinical evaluation system of general surgery, promote the transformation of Chinese surgery from "disease-centered" to "patient-centered", and help achieve the core medical goal of helping patients "live longer and live better".