Here are five points:
1. The direct input of the patient is essential for proper diagnosis and treatment, especially for areas such as orthopedics, cancer and HIV.
2. David Ayers, MD, director of the Orthopedic Center of Excellence at UMass Memorial Health Care, does not believe there has been a resistance to physicians using PROs, but admits the use of PROs in office practice has been slowed by the lack of integration into patient flow in the clinical setting.
3. PROs provide objective information about where a patient is in the disease process compared to the larger population and whether the patient is a candidate for joint replacement surgery.
4. In 2010, Dr. Ayers obtained a grant to help develop an orthopedic joint replacement registry, known as FORCE-TJR.
5. The registry is available in 26 states and has collected data from more than 25,000 patients.
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