Patient-Reported Outcomes in Foot and Ankle Orthopedics

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are a measure of health care quality that reflect the patient’s perceptions of their own health status. Recently, there has been a renewed interest in implementation of PROs into everyday clinical practice. There are many dozens of PROs available to foot and ankle surgeons with little consensus on which measures are most appropriate for a given condition. These measures vary widely in length, validity, and content. When integrating PROs into clinical practice, we recommend that clinicians should collect, at a minimum, validated PRO scores that assess pain, function, and general health. Furthermore, concise instruments should be used wherever possible to minimize patient burden, maximize patient engagement, and ensure meaningful data are collected. In the near future, outcomes registries employing computer adaptive testing will facilitate the routine collection of PRO data from all patients. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level V, expert opinion.