Orthopedic surgeon at Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic Shawn O'Driscoll, MD, designed a new system for assessing patient-reported outcomes.
Four insights:
1. A blind evaluation of Dr. O'Driscoll's system, the Summary Outcome Determination Score, by Mayo researchers found that the "score had strong physician-patient agreement, reliability and internal validity."
2. The system requires the patient, physicians and a medical staff member to complete a form, selecting a numerical rating and a more in-depth category rating for the patient's outcome compared to pre-surgery.
3. There are nine categories from normal to death and ratings rank from minus 10 to 10. A patient-physician agreement index was designed to calculate how closely the patient and physician agree.
4. Out of 100 patients enrolled in the study who had undergone elbow or shoulder surgery, patients and physicians agreed 96 percent to 100 percent of the time.