By Aimee Lee Russell, Associate, Programs

On Thursday, September 12, John Powers, MD, FACP, FIDSA, Professor of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine, at George Washington University spoke about clinician-reported outcomes (ClinROs) and their importance in clinical research as part of the NHC’s 10th webinar in our Clinical Outcome Assessment (COA) series.

Dr. Powers shared that a clinician-reported outcome (ClinRO) is a “report that comes from a trained health-care professional after he/she observes a patient’s health condition. ClinROs are generated by clinical judgement or interpretation of a patient’s observable signs, physical manifestations, and/or behaviors related to a condition or disease.” A ClinRO is based upon what that clinician observes. For example, a clinician can observe that a patient appears to be in pain. But, that clinician cannot report on that patient’s pain level.  Only the patient can do that.

So, when is a ClinRO appropriate to use in clinical research instead of using a direct patient report like a patient-reported outcome (PRO) measure? A ClinRO is an appropriate measure to use when:

• A clinician can make accurate assessments of observations that reflect patient feeling, function, or predict survival. For example, a clinician listens to wheezing during a lung exam. Patients don’t typically listen to their own lungs.
• Patients are unable to self-report on their own health status due to mental or physical impairment or age (e.g., neonates).

Dr. Powers stressed that if a patient is able to directly assess the concept or “thing” being measured, for example through a PRO, that is more desirable than using a ClinRO.

Additionally, it’s important to keep in mind that patient engagement is still important when developing ClinROs because whether it is the patient or a provider making assessment, the “thing” being measured should be something important to patients.

To learn more about ClinROs, please watch Dr. Power’s presentation.