Patient Reported Outcome (PRO)

What is a Patient Reported Outcome (PRO)?
A patient reported outcome (PRO) refers to a validated survey instrument that is used to systematically collect patient-relevant information directly from a patient. Each PRO is specifically designed and validated to measure something specific, with language being tested formally in order to ensure that it is generally interpreted consistently by the population of interest.

Clinical trials and HEOR studies may incorporate PRO measures in order to capture information directly from patients on things like health-related quality of life (HRQoL), symptoms, pain, etc. PROs can also be used to tabulate quality-adjusted life year (QALY) outcomes in health economic modeling, with the EuroQol-5 Dimension (EQ-5D) being the predominant PRO used for these purposes. Data from the EQ-5D can be used to determine utility scores from several different national value sets to make it applicable to specific markets. Other PRO data are sometimes also mapped to EQ-5D in order to then be able to leverage these national value sets.

Data can also be collected directly from physicians using similar validated instruments called Clinician Reported Outcomes (or ClinROs).