Creating a personalized evaluation framework for patient-reported outcomes: an illustration using the EQ-5D visual analogue scale

Bringing the patient's perspectives forward in drug development and health-care evaluation

INTRODUCTION

For many years, psychologists and other social scientists have been pushing for the individual patient's perspective - priorities, needs, feelings, and functioning - to be incorporated into drug development. This is usually achieved through the use of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in clinical trials.

AREAS COVERED

This paper discusses some key issues in the use of PROM data as the sole method of generating information about the patient's perspective and outlines the relevance of narrative evidence to enhance understanding and interpretation of PROM data.

EXPERT OPINION

The development and use of PROMs situates them at the vertex of two very different trends in medicine: patient-centered care and standardization. Indeed, the application of PROMs - which pull in the direction of standardization - results in a narrow conception of evidence by overriding the subjectivity of individual experiences, beliefs, and judgments. Without additional context, PROM data cannot easily support individual patient-level care. When collected systematically and with an interpretive phenomenological approach, narrative data can contain valuable information about the patient experience that numerical ratings from PRO measures do not capture.

Patient Experience Information: Streamlining and Harmonizing the Collection of Patient Preference and Patient-Reported Outcomes Data

Patient-reported outcome (PRO) research is conducted to gather information on an individual's disease or treatment experiences. Patient preference (PP) research is conducted to gather an individual's evaluation of alternatives or choices among outcomes or other attributes. The fields of PRO and PP research have largely been kept separate, partly because the use and audience have been different; although both can influence health care choices. Recent initiatives on the generation of 'patient experience information' provide a regulatory framework for simultaneous consideration of PRO and PP data. This should act as an impetus for PRO and PP researchers to collaborate to generate scientifically robust information on patients' experiences, perspectives, needs, and priorities. This article discusses the similarities between PRO and PP research and proposes a streamlined and harmonized approach from which sponsors can provide regulators (and payers, clinicians, caregivers, and patients) with information derived using psychometrically robust and interpretable PRO and PP methodologies.

The Sentiment Analysis of Tweets as a New Tool to Measure Public Perception of Male Erectile and Ejaculatory Dysfunctions

INTRODUCTION

Twitter is a social network based on "tweets," short messages of up to 280 characters. Social media has been investigated in health care research to ascertain positive or negative feelings associated with several conditions but never in sexual medicine.

AIM

To assess perceptions related to erectile dysfunction (ED) and premature ejaculation (PE) among Twitter users.

METHODS

Data collection was performed on a daily basis between May 24-October 9, 2018 (138 days) via an automated script. Data collection was then performed after data cleaning. The statistical software R and the rtweet packages were used in both phases.

RESULTS

We collected 11,000 unique tweets for PE and 30,546 unique tweets for ED. After data cleaning, we analyzed 7,020 tweets on PE and 22,648 tweets on ED by analyzing the most recurring words and the clusters describing word associations. The most popular words for ED were "Treatment," "Health," and "Viagra," whereas "Sex," "Sexual," and "Cure" were the top 3 for PE. Word clusters suggest the presence of some recurring themes, such as medical terms being grouped together. Additionally, tweets reflect the general feelings triggered by specific events, such as pieces of news pertaining to sexual dysfunctions.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

Tweets on sexual dysfunctions are posted every day, with more tweets on ED than on PE. Treatment is among the chief topics discussed for both conditions, although health concerns differ between PE and DE tweets.

STRENGTH AND LIMITATIONS

This is the first analysis conducted on Tweets in the field of andrology and sexual medicine. A significant number of tweets were collected and analyzed. However, quantitative assessment of the sentiment was not feasible.

CONCLUSION

Sexual dysfunctions are openly discussed on social media, and Twitter analysis could help understand the needs and interests of the general population on these themes. Sansone A, Cignarelli A, Ciocca G, et al. The Sentiment Analysis of Tweets as a New Tool to Measure Public Perception of Male Erectile and Ejaculatory Dysfunctions. Sex Med 2019;7:464-471.