Fiscal Year:
2001
Title:
Assessment of Quality of Life by Patients in Pain
Agency:
HHS
Contract:
N/A
Award Amount:
$99,442.00
Abstract:
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The prevalence of untreated moderate to
severe pain may be as high as 25 percent in the United States. In order to
measure the effectiveness of treatment, outcome measures of a patient's
perceptions have become increasingly important in hospital and health settings.
Questionnaires are the only vehicle presently used to assess Quality of Life
(QOL) from the standpoint of the patient. The objective of this Phase I
proposal is to develop a computerized judgment method, not based on a
questionnaire format, allowing health professionals to quickly determine
perceived QOL of patients entering a hospital or clinic for treatment. Patients
will use visual analogue scales (VAS) to adjust the length of bars on the
computer screen to indicate overall QOL and QOL for each of 20 variables. The
approach is referred to as the "Clustered Rating Method (CRM)." The user
actively creates a QOL profile representing the positive or negative salience
of variables such as health status, energy level, and home life. The main
advantages of this method are (a) quantitative interval scale measures are
obtained and (b) data collection and analysis is efficient and inexpensive. The
software will be available for the two most common computer platforms (Windows
& Macintosh).
PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION:
The software assessing quality-of-life variables for patients will be sold to hospitals,
pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and disaility examiners.
Principal Investigator:
John C. Baird
Small Business Information at Submission:
PSYCHOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS, LLC
456 CORNISH TPKE NEWPORT, NH 03733
EIN/Tax ID:
020507400
DUNS:
N/A
Number of Employees:
N/A
Woman-Owned:
No
Minority-Owned:
No
HUBZone-Owned:
No