Led by Northwestern, a consortium of nine universities received a $6.3 million grant to improve the use of patient-reported outcomes in medical care and research.

The National Institutes of Health funded the project, which helps researchers and clinicians collect and use patient-reported outcomes. Patient-reported outcomes — direct reports from patients about their physical, mental and social health status — have been found to be one of the best ways of improving the quality of research and health care, according to a press release.

“This approach to direct, efficient acquisition and integration of patient-reported information represents the future of patient care and medical research, and this project paves the way to that future,” said Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, director of the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, in the press release.

The Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System, a computerized tool that makes health surveys more efficient in evaluating and monitoring health, will be further integrated into patients’ Electronic Health Records (EHR) and medical information.

NU already uses PROMIS and will lead a consortium of nine universities to integrate the tool with more EHRs. This will make it easier for health care systems throughout the country to streamline their surveys and compare results.

The other eight universities are the University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Kentucky, University of Florida, University of Utah, Harvard University and Southern California Clinical Translational Science Institute.

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