Outcome Measure Harmonization and Data Infrastructure for Patient Centered Outcomes Research in Depression

In support of this mission, AHRQ funded a prior project to harmonize the outcome measures collected across patient registries and routine clinical practice, with the goals of supporting the development of a robust data infrastructure that can consistently and efficiently collect high-quality data on outcome measures that are relevant to patients and clinicians and supporting patient-centered outcomes research and quality improvement. Harmonized outcome measures would also form the foundation for learning healthcare systems. Of note, AHRQ has supported the development of the Outcome Measures Framework (OMF). The OMF is a conceptual model for classifying outcomes that are relevant to patients and providers across most conditions. AHRQ, in collaboration with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Library of Medicine, recently supported an effort to use the OMF as a content model for developing harmonized outcome measures in specific disease areas, including depression. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common mental disorder that affects an estimated 16.2 million adults and 3.1 million adolescents in the United States. Characterized by changes in mood, cognitive function, and/or physical function that persist for two or more weeks, MDD can reduce quality of life substantially, impair function at home, work, school, and in social settings, and result in increased mortality due to suicide. MDD also is a major cause of disability, with an economic burden of approximately $210.5 billion per year in the United States. Despite the burden of MDD and the availability of treatment, the condition is often undiagnosed and untreated. In 2016, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended screening for depression in the general adult population, including pregnant and postpartum women, and in adolescents. While routine screening is intended to improve diagnosis and treatment of MDD, many questions remain, such as about the comparative effectiveness of different treatment approaches, the incidence of adverse events, when to add medications for patients who do not respond to an initial course of treatment, how and why depression recurs, and how to classify and treat treatment-resistant depression. Patient registries capture a wealth of data on depression treatment patterns and outcomes in the United States and could serve as the foundation for a national research infrastructure to address these and other research questions. Yet, a lack of harmonization in the outcome measures collected by each registry makes it challenging, if not impossible, to link and compare data across registries and related efforts. As documented in the prior project, existing registries use different outcome measures (e.g., remission as defined by the PHQ-9 vs. HAM-D) and capture data at different timepoints. Depression registries offer an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the feasibility and value of implementing the harmonized outcome measures. Existing registries already capture some of the harmonized depression measures for quality reporting, although at different timepoints; capture of these measures and the additional measures at consistent intervals will enable the registries to generate more robust data suitable for research purposes. AHRQ is now proposing to implement the harmonized depression outcome measures developed under the prior project in two patient registries (the PRIME Registry and PsychPRO) and a health system setting. The purpose of this project is to demonstrate that capturing the harmonized outcome measures in the clinical workflow and submitting these data to different registries can improve clinical care, reduce the burden of registry participation, and increase the utility of registry data for research purposes. The objectives of the project are to: - Demonstrate that collection of the harmonized outcome measures is feasible, sustainable, and useful for clinicians participating in primary care and ment

The latest form for Outcome Measure Harmonization and Data Infrastructure for Patient Centered Outcomes Research in Depression expires 2023-01-31 and can be found here.

Attachment C: PHQ-9

Federal Enterprise Architecture: Health - Health Care Services

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