Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, and Institute for Reconstructive Sciences in Medicine, Misericordia Community Hospital, Edmonton, AB.
J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2010 Oct;39(5):523-31.
Functional outcomes assessment has become increasingly important in informing treatment decisions in the area of head and neck cancer. However, consistency of assessment methods across studies has been lacking. For the literature to inform clinical decision making, consensus regarding outcomes measurements is necessary.
The Head and Neck Research Network (HNRN) was founded in January 2008 to become a conduit for high-quality research in the area of functional outcomes in patients with head and neck defects. The present study surveyed experts in functional outcomes assessment to determine what are considered the most important tools for assessing speech and swallowing and what background patient characteristics are important to capture.
DESIGN, PARTICIPANTS, AND MEASURES: Respondents to the online survey included 54 participants with a background in speech-language pathology, with the majority of respondents from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
The results from the survey indicated that clinicians consider both subjective and objective measures as important to use when assessing function. More advanced technical tools were often rated as less important; however, it also was noted that clinicians were most often not able to access these tools or were unfamiliar with them.
在头颈部癌症领域，功能结果评估对于告知治疗决策变得越来越重要。然而，研究之间的评估方法一致性一直缺乏。为了使文献能够为临床决策提供信息，有必要就结果测量达成共识。
头颈研究网络（HNRN）成立于 2008 年 1 月，旨在成为头颈部缺损患者功能结果领域高质量研究的渠道。本研究调查了功能结果评估方面的专家，以确定评估言语和吞咽功能最重要的工具是什么，以及需要捕捉哪些重要的背景患者特征。
设计、参与者和测量：在线调查的回复者包括 54 名具有言语病理学背景的参与者，大多数回复者来自美国、加拿大和英国。
调查结果表明，临床医生认为在评估功能时，主观和客观测量同样重要。更先进的技术工具通常被认为不太重要；然而，也有人指出，临床医生通常无法获得这些工具，或者对这些工具不熟悉。
