What Is the Relationship Between Clinician-reported and Patient-reported Outcomes in Orthopaedic Surgery?

The authors investigate the relationship between clinician-reported outcome measures (CROMs) and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in orthopaedic surgery, specifically examining how these measures correlate across different conditions and their responsiveness to clinical changes. They find that condition-specific PROMs generally correlate more strongly with corresponding CROMs, particularly soft CROMs, while hard CROMs are more effective in short-term rehabilitation settings. The study suggests that a combination of condition-specific PROMs and hard CROMs should be utilized for a comprehensive assessment of patient outcomes in orthopaedic research.