Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) are used to obtain information from patients on their health outcomes utilising validated and standardised questionnaires. They are commonly used before, during and after health care interventions to assess changes in health outcomes. Generic questionnaires are used to compare the health status of patients across different health conditions, while specific questionnaires assess aspects of health and treatments that are associated with a particular condition or disease. Questionnaires typically range from 5 to 36 questions and ask respondents to assess aspects of their health and functioning on a rating scale i.e. how their condition or their health care has affected their symptom severity (physical and psychological), daily functioning, financial burden and/or quality of life. Some examples include the Short Form-36 (SF-36), European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions (EuroQol EQ-5D) and the Assessment of Quality of Life – 8 Dimensions (AQol-8D).

PROMs can provide a guide for choosing between treatments and can also be used in economic evaluation of treatments across conditions to inform overall health resource allocation decisions. Aggregated PROMs can be used to guide quality improvement initiatives for patients and at health service and systems levels. The Health Economics team are currently using PROMs to assess health in:

• Kidney disease
• Melanoma
• Paediatrics
• Prostate cancer
• Cardiovascular disease
• Perinatal medicine