Introduction to special section: measuring what matters.
Manuscript
Blum S I, Ahmed S, Flood E, Oort FJ, & Schwartz CE. Introduction to special section: measuring what matters. Qual Life Res (2018): 27:1.
Article Introduction
In 2015, ISOQOL President, Claire Snyder, PhD, and the ISOQOL Board introduced two key themes for ISOQOL to focus on over the coming years: Measuring What Matters (e.g., what outcomes should we measure) and Making Measurement Meaningful (e.g., what do the scores mean) [1]. An additional topic, Making Sense of Methods (e.g., how do you interpret psychometric data), also subsequently emerged [2]. To advance the dialog on Measuring What Matters, ISOQOL held its inaugural Measuring What Matters educational symposium in July 2016. Measuring What Matters is more than just a catchy slogan or catch phrase. It is a strategic imperative and a call for action for researchers to develop patient-reported outcomes (PRO) and other instruments which assess meaningful health outcomes—but for whom and for what purpose? When selecting an instrument, we need to also consider the context in which the measure will be used.