Streamlining Trauma Research Evaluation With Advanced Measurement

The STREAM Study is a prospective longitudinal observational outcomes study that will examine the reliability, validity and responsiveness of the PROMIS tools for clinical research following orthopaedic trauma.

Objective: As part of the NIH Roadmap initiative, PROMIS (patient reported outcomes measurement information system) has developed tools, including item banks, short forms and computer-adaptive tests (CATs) that can help standardize measurement for many health-related quality of life domains. These PROMIS tools are being tested in large general population samples across the lifespan. The overall goal of the present study is to assess the performance and research utility of these new tools in new patient populations for future comparative effectiveness research projects. The proposed project will examine the reliability, validity and responsiveness of the PROMIS tools for clinical research following orthopaedic trauma.

Specific Aim 1: Examine the measurement properties of existing PROMIS CATs and item banks in patients with orthopaedic trauma. Investigators will incorporate ten (six core and four exploratory) PROMIS short form and CATs into the longitudinal data collection of five ongoing orthopaedic trauma clinical trials and administer an expanded data collection interview at the time of their last study follow up which will be used to:

1a: Evaluate reliability and construct validity of the PROMIS CATs

1b: Compare measurement precision of the six existing item banks when applied in an orthopaedic trauma population versus the general population.

1. c: Identify items from existing PROMIS item banks that function differently in our population compared with the general population.

Specific Aim 2: Examine the responsiveness of existing PROMIS domains in patients with orthopaedic trauma. Specifically, investigators will:

1. a: Examine the responsiveness of PROMIS domains against expected clinical recovery in this population.

2b: Examine the responsiveness of PROMIS domains against well-defined clinical inflection points in the recovery process, such as infections, non-unions, flap failures, and other complications.

2c: Examine the responsiveness of PROMIS domains against treatment effects observed for interventions being studied in these trials, which include a psychosocial intervention, a pharmacologic intervention, and a device. These trials are being evaluated using widely used traditional outcome measurement tools.

Specific Aim 3: Study the integration of the PROMIS tools within the data collection infrastructure of METRC. Key feasibility components examined will be integration with our distributed electronic data capture system (REDCap), and use of the CAT technology across dozens of trauma centers and orthopaedic trauma clinics.

3a. Compare the rate of use of CAT-based assessment versus short-form data collection 3b: Compare the data completeness using existing METRC approaches, CAT and short form PROMIS instruments 3c: Compare respondent burden using existing METRC approaches, CAT and short form PROMIS instruments.

Study design: The STREAM study is a multi-center, prospective longitudinal observational study to evaluate the reliability, validity and responsiveness of PROMIS tools in orthopaedic trauma patients.