The use of PROMIS and assessment center to deliver patient-reported outcome measures in clinical research.

The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) was developed as one of the first projects funded by the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research Initiative to re-engineer the clinical research enterprise. The primary goal of PROMIS is to build item banks and short forms that measure key health outcome domains that are manifested in a variety of chronic diseases which could be used as a "common currency" across research projects. To date, item banks, short forms and computerized adaptive tests (CAT) have been developed for 13 domains with relevance to pediatric and adult subjects. To enable easy delivery of these new instruments, PROMIS built a web-based resource (Assessment Center) for administering CATs and other self-report data, tracking item and instrument development, monitoring accrual, managing data, and storing statistical analysis results. Assessment Center can also be used to deliver custom researcher developed content, and has numerous features that support both simple and complicated accrual designs (branching, multiple arms, multiple time points, etc.). This paper provides an overview of the development of the PROMIS item banks and details Assessment Center functionality.