News

At the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School (PennVet) researchers work on animal quality of life research and work to improve the assessment tools available to quantify animal quality of life as well as effects of pet ownership on the quality of life of pet owners!!

Freeman, L. M., Rush, J. E., Oyama, M. A., MacDonald, K. A., Cunningham, S. M., Bulmer, B., MacGregor, J. M., Laste, N. J., Malakoff, R. L., Hall, D. J., Trafny, D. J. Development and evaluation of a questionnaire for assessment of health-related quality of life in cats with cardiac disease Javma-Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 240: 1188-1193, 2012.

Development and Validation of Quality of Life Questionnaires for Birdshot Chorioretinopathy

Researchers at the University College London, Department of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania and others have worked to validate a questionnaire specific to a rare form of chronic uveitis requiring long term, systemic immunosuppression therapy. They believe the new questionnaire captures the unique and wide range of symptoms associated with the disease and its treatment.

Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute: Statement of PCORI Executive Director Joe Selby, MD, MPH, on the National Pharmaceutical Council’s Fourth Annual Comparative Effectiveness Research Survey

“The National Pharmaceutical Council’s annual comparative effectiveness research (CER) survey confirms our nation’s need for more real-world evidence that patients can use to make better informed healthcare decisions.

“We’re gratified that the stakeholders surveyed view PCORI as a leader in establishing CER priorities and research standards and in funding new studies.

“We are focused on generating more evidence more quickly about some of the most common and burdensome health conditions. All of our funding initiatives – including our standing broad funding announcements, our increasing number of targeted announcements, our recently launched pragmatic clinical studies initiative, and our national clinical data research network – are designed to expand the volume of real-world, comparative evidence about what works and what doesn’t in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of conditions.

“Thank you to NPC for conducting this survey. We appreciate this important conversation and the opportunity to work with all healthcare stakeholders to identify and answer critical, practical, patient-centered research questions and improve outcomes.”