Current Status of Worldwide Use of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) in Spine Care

Falavigna A 1 , Dozza DC 2 , Teles AR 3 , Wong CC 4 , Barbagallo G 5 , Brodke D 6 Show all authors , Al-Mutair A 7 , Ghogawala Z 8 , Riew KD 9

Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Neurosurgery, Caxias do Sul University, Caxias do Sul, RS, Brazil. Electronic address: asdrubalmd@gmail.com
  • 2 Department of Neurosurgery, São Vicente de Paulo Hospital, Fronteira Sul Federal University, Passo Fundo, RS, Brazil
  • 3 Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
  • 4 Sarawak General Hospital, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce, Kuching, Malaysia
  • 5 Azienda Ospedaliero, Universitaria Policlinico Neurosurgery, Catania, Italy
  • 6 Spine Service, University of Utah Department of Orthopaedics, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
  • 7 Alrazi Hospital, Ministry of Health/Kuwait Institute for Medical Specialization, Adailiya, Kuwait
  • 8 Alan and Jacqueline Stuart Spine Center, Department of Neurosurgery, Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, Burlington, Massachusetts, USA; Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  • 9 Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
World Neurosurg, 2017 Dec;108:328-335.
PMID: 28893693 DOI: 10.1016/j.wneu.2017.09.002

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are the most widely accepted means of measuring outcomes after spine procedures. We sought to determine the current status of worldwide use of PROMs in Latin America (LA), Europe (EU), Asia Pacific (AP), North America (NA), and Middle East (ME) to determine the barrier to its full implementation.

METHODS: A questionnaire survey was sent by e-mail to members of AOSpine to evaluate their familiarity and use of PROMs instruments and to assess the barriers to their use in spine care practice in LA, EU, AP, NA, and ME.

RESULTS: A total of 1634 AOSpine members from LA, EU, AP, NA, and ME answered the electronic questionnaire. The percentage of spine surgeons who were familiar with the generic health-related quality of life questionnaire was 71.7%. In addition, 31.9% of respondents did not use any PROMs routinely. The main barriers to implementing PROMs were lack of time to administer the questionnaires (57%) followed by lack of staff to assist in data collection (55%), and the long time to fill out the questionnaires (46%). The routine use of questionnaires was more frequent in NA and EU and less common in LA and ME (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: We found that 31.9% of spine surgeons do not use the PROMs questionnaire routinely. This appears to occur because of lack of knowledge regarding their importance, absence of reimbursement for this extra work, minimal financial support for clinical research, the cost of implementation, and lack of concern among physicians.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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