Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jul 20;8(7):e18117.
doi: 10.2196/18117.

Acceptance, Usage, and Barriers of Electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes Among German Rheumatologists: Survey Study

Martin Krusche  1   2 , Philipp Klemm  2   3 , Manuel Grahammer  4 , Johanna Mucke  2   5 , Diana Vossen  2   6 , Arnd Kleyer  2   7 , Philipp Sewerin  2   5 , Johannes Knitza  2   7
Affiliations

Acceptance, Usage, and Barriers of Electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes Among German Rheumatologists: Survey Study

Martin Krusche et al. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. .

Abstract

Background: The use of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) allows for patient-centered, measurable, and transparent care. Electronic PROs (ePROs) have many benefits and hold great potential to improve current usage of PROs, yet limited evidence exists regarding their acceptance, usage, and barriers among rheumatologists.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the current level of acceptance, usage, and barriers among German rheumatologists regarding the use of ePROs. The importance of different ePRO features for rheumatologists was investigated. Additionally, the most frequently used PROs for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were identified.

Methods: Data were collected via an online survey consisting of 18 questions. The survey was completed by members of the Working Group Young Rheumatology of the German Society for Rheumatology (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Junge Rheumatologie der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Rheumatologie [DGRh]) at the 2019 annual DGRh conference. Only members currently working in clinical adult rheumatology were eligible to complete the survey.

Results: A total of 119 rheumatologists completed the survey, of which 107 (89.9%) reported collecting PROs in routine practice and 28 (25.5%) already used ePROs. Additionally, 44% (43/97) were planning to switch to ePROs in the near future. The most commonly cited reason for not switching was the unawareness of suitable software solutions. Respondents were asked to rate the features of ePROs on a scale of 0 to 100 (0=unimportant, 100=important). The most important features were automatic score calculation and display (mean 77.50) and simple data transfer to medical reports (mean 76.90). When asked about PROs in RA, the respondents listed pain, morning stiffness, and patient global assessment as the most frequently used PROs.

Conclusions: The potential of ePROs is widely seen and there is great interest in them. Despite this, only a minority of physicians use ePROs, and the main reason for not implementing them was cited as the unawareness of suitable software solutions. Developers, patients, and rheumatologists should work closely together to help realize the full potential of ePROs and ensure a seamless integration into clinical practice.

Keywords: eHealth; electronic patient-reported outcome measures; mobile phone; patient perspective; rheumatoid arthritis; rheumatology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: MG is the founder and stakeholder of ABATON GmbH. MK, PK, JM, DV, AK, PS, and JK declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Patient-reported outcomes being used in clinical practice and their respective frequency. EQ-5D: EuroQol Five-Dimensional Questionnaire; FACIT-F: Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue; FFbH: Funktionsfragebogen Hannover; HAQ-DI: Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index; PGA: patient global assessment; RAID: Rheumatoid Arthritis Impact of Disease; RAPID-3: Routine Assessment of Patient Index Data 3; RAQoL: Rheumatoid Arthritis Quality of Life; SF-36: Short Form-36.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Challa D, Kvrgic Z, Cheville A, Crowson C, Bongartz T, Mason T, Matteson E, Michet C, Persellin S, Schaffer D, Muskardin T, Wright K, Davis J. Patient-provider discordance between global assessments of disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis: a comprehensive clinical evaluation. Arthritis Res Ther. 2017 Sep 26;19(1):212. doi: 10.1186/s13075-017-1419-5. https://arthritis-research.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13075-017... - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fautrel B, Alten R, Kirkham B, de la Torre I, Durand F, Barry J, Holzkaemper T, Fakhouri W, Taylor P. Call for action: how to improve use of patient-reported outcomes to guide clinical decision making in rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatol Int. 2018 Jun;38(6):935–947. doi: 10.1007/s00296-018-4005-5. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/29564549 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hendrikx J, de Jonge MJ, Fransen J, Kievit W, van Riel PL. Systematic review of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for assessing disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis. RMD Open. 2016 Aug 18;2(2):e000202. doi: 10.1136/rmdopen-2015-000202. https://rmdopen.bmj.com/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=27651921 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gossec L, Dougados M, Dixon W. Patient-reported outcomes as end points in clinical trials in rheumatoid arthritis. RMD Open. 2015;1(1):e000019. doi: 10.1136/rmdopen-2014-000019. https://rmdopen.bmj.com/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=26509052 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bingham CO, Gaich CL, DeLozier AM, Engstrom KD, Naegeli AN, de Bono S, Banerjee P, Taylor PC. Use of daily electronic patient-reported outcome (PRO) diaries in randomized controlled trials for rheumatoid arthritis: rationale and implementation. Trials. 2019 Mar 22;20(1):182. doi: 10.1186/s13063-019-3272-0. https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-019-3272-0 - DOI - PMC - PubMed