The Equivalence of Remote Electronic and Paper Patient Reported Outcome (PRO) Collection.

Abstract

Individual patient level Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) are increasingly important in clinical practice. Web-based collection enables clinicians to remotely collect scores at regular intervals, away from the clinic setting. In this randomized crossover study, 47 patients, having undergone hip surgery, were allocated to two groups. Group 1 completed the web-based scores followed by the paper equivalents one week later; Group 2 completed the scores the other way around. The Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) for the Oxford Hip Score was 0.99, 0.98 to 0.99 (ICC, 95% CI) and the ICCs for the other scores were between 0.95 and 0.97. We conclude that remote ePRO collection using this web-based system reveals excellent equivalence to paper PRO collection of the Oxford Hip, McCarthy, UCLA and howRu scores.