Specialty Assessments

What are the Specialty Assessments?

PROMIS measures are a diverse multi-regional tool, applicable for a number of musculoskeletal body regions (upper extremity, lower extremity, and spine) to measure pain and function following an injury, however, they are not validated for specific ‘specialty’ regions and associated conditions. In the case of these ‘specialty’ regions, the following diagnosis-specific assessments are utilized.

How are the Specialty Assessments Scored?

The description, scale, and interpretation for each assessment can be found below. As with the PROMIS collection cadence, these measures are set to be sent to the patient at predetermined intervals over a 2 year period of time. 

The minimal clinically important difference (MCID) available for the specialty assessments can be found below. For those unavailable, the MCID likely varies by patient population.

The MCID is the smallest change that a patient would notice and appreciate, and can be used to determine whether they are responding to treatment. If the patient’s score on an outcome measure changes by more than the MCID, it is likely that they are benefiting from the established treatment plan.

However, MCID is merely the floor clinicians and patients should be aiming for, as many patients exceed MCID by a substantial margin. Patient-reported outcome specific goals should be aligned with optimizing each patient’s recovery, versus solely attaining the MCID.

To best interpret results of patient-reported outcome measures and understand if your patient is making significant improvements, beneficial metrics other than the MCID should be referenced, such as the substantial clinical benefit (SCB). This value indicates the amount of change required for a patient to feel they significantly improved from an intervention. It is best practice to research your patient population for each case to determine if specific MCID or SCB values exist in the literature.