[Assessment of patient-reported outcomes as an instrument for patient-centered care?]

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are becoming increasingly important for patient-centered assessment of treatment success in healthcare. In recent decades, a large number of instruments have been developed that allow for differentiated recording of symptoms, everyday functions, and various aspects of quality of life. PROMs are now used in nearly 50% of all clinical studies to compare treatments in terms of their benefits for patients. In addition, PROMs are used in quality assurance to compare the treatment success of various healthcare providers. In individual treatment, PROMs can be used to screen for psychological burden or mental health condition.The use of PROMs as an intervention in themselves is relatively new. Systematic symptom assessment in oncology allows side effects to be better controlled and regularly shows positive effects on patients' quality of life.Nevertheless, PROMs have been little used in routine clinical practice to date. For clinicians, the benefits for their daily work rarely outweigh the additional effort involved. The prerequisites for successful implementation in clinical processes currently appear to be, on the one hand, intersectoral harmonization of measurements and, on the other hand, better integration into electronic health records. In Germany and Europe, various initiatives have emerged in recent years, including as part of the Medical Informatics Initiative, which address both issues. It seems inconceivable that empirically oriented medicine will in the long term dispense recording one of the central therapeutic goals-how the patient is doing.