What is the problem
The patient voice has power. Hospitals and clinics across the country are increasingly collecting patient-reported outcomes (PROs). How can routinely-collected PROs predict adverse outcomes and shed light on disparities?
What are we doing
In one project funded by the NCI, we developed methodologies to incorporate PROs into standard prognostic algorithms to improve prediction of mortality by 25%. In another project, we found that Black patients with cancer completed PROs at significantly lower rates than White patients, but reported significantly higher symptom burden than White patients. Disturbed by this finding, we are now studying ways to increase completion of PROs through remote technologies and behavioral economics.
Impact
Our findings have spurred efforts at Penn Medicine to improve PRO completion among Black and other minority communities and to develop interfaces to display information in a digestible way. We have now patented our methodology to develop flexible algorithms that incorporate PRO data when its available and are working with other health systems to incorporate their PROs into better predictive tools.
