Editorial Commentary: Delivering the PROMIS for Patients With Shoulder Disorders-Fool's Gold, a Mirage, or an Oasis.

Abstract

Comparative psychometric performance of Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) instruments to legacy patient-reported outcomes for shoulder disorders is relevant and timely, as numerous stakeholders are engaged in the process of capturing, comparing, and evaluating performance results at the individual and population health levels. Depending on the stakeholder type, patient-reported outcomes could be used for clinical research, reimbursement, point-of-care, or benchmarking for patient comparison with a matched population cohort or comparative surgeon scorecard. Identifying and using the appropriate patient-reported outcome measure may be dependent on the purpose for measurement and stakeholder engagement and, as such, could be considered fool's gold, a mirage, or an oasis. At this time, PROMIS instruments are not a suitable replacement for legacy patient-reported outcomes when orthopaedic surgeons are looking to perform level I and level II clinical studies to develop future clinical practice guidelines grounded in strong evidence.