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CHICAGO—Every minute, it seems, a new digital tool is introduced in medicine. Whether it’s a new digital measuring stick, a new data-crunching system or a new app, the tech tools form an endless convoy of options. But are they worth it? Will they really help you do your job better? Will they help patients feel better? Will they make things faster and easier? Does research back them up? A panel of experts gathered at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting to talk about just that.
The experts noted encouraging digital advances that appear poised to help in the realm of patient-reported outcomes, as well as to address challenges in collecting data, tracking flares, assessing medication adherence and patient education.
Patient-Reported Outcome Info
Clifton “Bing” Bingham, MD, director of the Johns Hopkins Arthritis Center, Baltimore, said PROMIS, or the Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System, is showing benefits in rheumatology. This 10-year project by the National Institutes of Health, now seeing more use in clinical practice, blends advanced information technology with psychometrics and qualitative, cognitive and health survey research to create a nimbler and more usable source of patient information. It provides a more accurate picture of how patients experience their disease than such commonly used tools as the Simple Disease Activity Index, Clinical Disease Activity Index and Disease Activity Score, which tend to miss “things that patients are telling us are important,” Dr. Bingham said.