Our Measure of Medical Research Should Be Appreciable Benefit to the Patient.

Abstract

The clinical relevance of research is much more important than statistical significance. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROM) are the strongest determinants of satisfaction as the result of an intervention or treatment. Outcomes can be measured in terms of the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) detectable by a patient, bearing in mind that "detectable" includes worsening as well as improvement. Patient-acceptable symptomatic state (PASS) and substantial clinical benefit (SCB) ultimately correlate with whether patients are happy or willing to undergo an intervention again. These measures should not be reported in terms of group means, where outliers could distort the score. These measures should be reported in terms of the proportion of individual patients whose scores cross the meaningful thresholds of satisfaction.