Oncology QOL Clinical Significance Consensus Meeting

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this proposal is to hold an open registration conference on assessing clinical significance for quality of life (QOL) measurement in oncology to be held April 5-6, 2002 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The primary goals of this meeting are to disseminate and debate consensus statements produced as a result of the prior invitational consensus meeting. This consensus meeting was held October 6-7, 2000. We brought together thirty of the leading experts on the topic of clinical significance to a "think tank" at the Mayo Clinic with the goal of producing a state-of- the-science summary on this topic. The major outcome of this consensus meeting was to produce a series of six papers (plus a seventh introductory paper), and a monograph which sets out the primary methods, challenges, and solutions for assessing clinical significance for QOL measurement in oncology. The proposed conference will focus on the six primary issues discussed at the consensus meeting. These include: 1) methods used to date for clinical significance (advantages, problems) 2) group versus individual clinical significant differences 3) single item versus summated scale scores 4) patient versus clinician versus population perspective of clinical significance 5) assessing changes over time 6) incorporating QOL assessment into clinical practice and communicating results This information will provide tangible information for clinicians who are interested in assessing QOL: and for researchers who debate when a QOL instrument measurement change represents a clinical significant change for the patient.