One of the ASR’s goals is to provide the orthopaedic community with national comparative patient-reported outcome (PRO) data. To assist Registry Program sites in PRO data capture and deliver a service to store and access the data, the Registry Program developed a PRO portal within our RegistryInsights® platform. It’s available to participants at no additional cost.
What are PROs and PROMs?
PROs are any information on the results of health care that comes directly from patients without being modified or interpreted by health professionals.
A PROM is a survey that captures a patient’s self-assessment, or personal feelings, regarding their health status. Surveys can be anatomical, covering specific body regions such as a hip or knee, or can be functional, with Health-related Quality of Life (HRQL) questions related to physical function, mental attitude, mobility, social function, and bodily pain. Surveys may ask patients questions regarding pain and stiffness with activities such as sitting, standing, walking, climbing stairs, or performing activities of daily living.
Why Collect PROMs?
PRO data reflect the patient’s perspective on the outcome of surgery, and in conjunction with other clinical measures can provide a fuller picture of the impact of care. Here are a few reasons to use a registry for the collection of PROMs:
- Track the full episode of patient care
- Meet quality initiatives like the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)
- Collaborate with certifying bodies to meet certification requirements
- Completed PROM scores for further analysis
- Dashboards for comparing to national benchmarks
The ASR PROMs Collected
The ASR recommended PROMs include:
- PROMIS-10, Physical Function, Emotional Distress – Anxiety, Emotional Distress – Depression, and Pain Interference
- VR-12
- Oswestry Disability Index/Neck Disability Index
- Numeric Rating Scale
ASR will continue to support EQ-5D for tracking legacy NeuroPoint Quality Outcomes Database (QOD) patients only. Sites are encouraged to transition to the ASR recommended PROMs listed above with any new patient enrollment and continued tracking of legacy QOD patients.
Submitting PROMs to ASR
Registry Program participants have a variety of ways for collecting and submitting PROMs:
- Our PRO portal can be utilized to either email surveys to patients or allow patients to use the Portal’s Kiosk Mode in a private practice setting.
- If participants already have an established method to collect PROMs either electronically or by paper, they can submit PROMs scores as part of their normal data upload to the Registry Program.
- Participants that use a third-party vendor to capture PROMs can have the vendor submit data on their behalf if the vendor is part of our Authorized Vendor Program. See a full list of Authorized Vendors.
In addition to providing you flexibility as to how patients can receive and subsequently complete the surveys, the PRO portal also provides you tools to monitor the compliance of survey completion.
PROMs Submission Intervals
All ASR sites are required to submit baseline PROMs at three months. A one-year follow up is a requirement for Vanguard sites, but we recommend all participating sites to submit a one-year PROM post-operation. Sites may submit PROMs at any interval in addition to their mandatory intervals.
Viewing Your Data with PROMs Dashboards and Reports
Our PRO portal is seamlessly integrated with RegistryInsights. Participants can analyze sitewide and national benchmark data of the ASR’s recommended measures with the PROMs Dashboard. Surgeons can view dashboards for their patients’ PROMs and compare them to national scores. We also provide a variety of PROMs reports that participants can run.
If you are experiencing technical issues with the PRO portal, please contact the ASR Support team at Support@AmericanSpineRegistry.org. Sites that are interested in joining the ASR to implement and collect PROs with the PRO portal can contact the ASR Engagement team at Engagement@AmericanSpineRegistry.org.