How a well-grounded minimal important difference can enhance transparency of labelling claims and improve interpretation of a patient reported outcome measure

The evaluation and use of patient reported outcome (PRO) measures requires detailed understanding of the meaning of the outcome of interest. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently presented its draft guidance and view on the use of PRO measures as endpoints in clinical trials. One section o...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Brożek, Jan L, Guyatt, Gordon H, Schünemann, Holger J
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: BioMed Central 2006
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1599713/
Description
Summary:The evaluation and use of patient reported outcome (PRO) measures requires detailed understanding of the meaning of the outcome of interest. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently presented its draft guidance and view on the use of PRO measures as endpoints in clinical trials. One section of the guidance document specifically deals with advice about the use of the minimal important difference (MID) that we redefined as the smallest difference in score in the outcome of interest that informed patients or informed proxies perceive as important. The advice, however, is short, indeed much too short. We believe that expanding the section and making it more specific will benefit all stakeholders: patients, clinicians, other clinical decision makers, those designing trials and making claims, payers and the FDA.