To truly improve patient experience and patient care, we need to shift our mindset. In conjunction with considering medical milestones or statistics, healthcare organisations need to consider what the impact of the health condition is on the patient’s life and how they experience their illness. For example, if a child suffers from asthma, as well as determining how frequently they are affected and how many times they need medication, it is crucial to ask how it is impacting their ability to play with their friends. Can they still do sport? Is it stopping them from attending school?

While there is a general agreement in the medical field that PRO is important, there are challenges from a time and cost perspective to gathering this information and ensuring that it is then converted into a usable format.

At our upcoming conference, we will be exploring how the challenges and opportunities around how the use of patient-reported outcomes can be improved.