Development of a Standardized Face and Content Validity Test to Evaluate Patient Questionnaires for Clinical Practice.	PDF File
Virginie Bagneux MA 2| Nicola Barnes MA 1 | Benoit Arnould MSc, MA1 1 Mapi Values, Lyon, France 2 Université de Savoie, Chambéry, France.

Introduction

Patient questionnaires are a well-documented means of contributing to the healthcare process. Alongside the shift to patient-centered care, there has been much speculation about the potential of these instruments for use in clinical practice. The International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL) recently organized a meeting specifically on Patient-Reported Outcomes in clinical practice^I ,attesting to the interest currently being shown for this subject in the international arena.

However, although a number of patient questionnaires now purport to have been developed and validated specifically in and for the clinical practice setting, the uptake of these tools into the routine care setting has been slow. Reasons for this, and possible solutions, have been discussed in a number of articles1,2,3. The reluctance to use these tools in clinical practice has been disappointing, given the potential advantages^3,4 of integrating these tools into the clinical care setting, including:
- initiating conversations about treatment or disease issues5
- supporting diagnosis and shared-decision-making6
- evaluating quality of care4
- improving patient benefit4

Why is it that the well-developed instruments available are not being used? Could it be because “good” instruments are not so good for clinical practice?

Indeed, the criteria used to evaluate patient questionnaires^7,8 were developed for research^9,10 and not for clinical practice. Yet the criteria for judging instruments are not the same in these contexts^11,12. The need to understand what clinicians expect from tools for clinical practice led to the presented project. The premise was that these tools would be more likely to be used if their pertinence to physicians were ensured during their development.

I. ISOQOL conference on Patient-Reported Outcomes in Clinical Practice; Budapest; June 24-26 2007