At the recent PROMIS Health Organization (PHO) Meeting in Milwaukee, Dr. Clifton Bingham, professor in the Division of Rheumatology, was appointed president for a two-year term. PHO is an international organization with a mission to advance the science of health outcomes assessment by promoting the use and dissemination of PROMIS (Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System) measures. PROMIS is a system of measurement tools developed by the NIH to evaluate health-related quality of life across multiple domains of physical, emotional, and social health, and intended to be universal in its application, regardless of the underlying health conditions. These measures can be administered in multiple formats, including computer adaptive tests to provide precise estimates of patient symptoms and health impacts. The goals of the PHO are to encourage the integration and implementation of PROMIS broadly across clinical practice, research, and health policy settings, to provide a community for PROMIS users to exchange information and benefit from shared experiences, and to facilitate the global use of PROMIS measures to enhance healthcare quality.
Dr. Bingham and his team at Hopkins were pioneers in introducing PROMIS to clinical care for patients with inflammatory arthritis to capture the symptoms and impacts most highly prioritized by patients. They have been routinely collecting these measures, deployed through EPIC, for more than eight years. These measures are now being used to identify symptom clusters that may help to predict longer-term patient outcomes and responses to treatment.
