July 20, 2004 - QualityMetric Incorporated announced today that royalty-free access to DYNHA^® generic and disease-specific computer adaptive health assessments will be offered for the purpose of scholarly research starting August 2, 2004. According to John E. Ware, Jr., PhD, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Science Officer of QualityMetric, "We decided to offer DYNHA^® on the Internet in the same manner we offer the 'static' SF-36^® Health Survey, regardless of our development costs, to accelerate applications in clinical research and practice, as well as to stimulate growth in scientific literature devoted to this very important advance."

QualityMetric was the first company to offer applications of computer adaptive technology (CAT) to health outcomes measurement on the Internet, developing DYNHA^® to make health status surveys much shorter, more precise, and less expensive, by matching questions to each respondent’s health level. DYNHA^® produces norm-based scores that are easily interpreted, comparable with the world’s most widely used static tools (e.g., SF-36^® Health Survey), and have the precision required for patient-level monitoring. (Related article links below.)

With respect to DYNHA's more precise measurement for respondents with greater pathology: "to my knowledge it is new. The idea of a planned smooth increase in precision from respondents who are healthy (and about which there is little concern) to those who are less healthy is another new contribution to the CAT toolbox."
David Thissen, PhD
Professor, Quantitative Program, Department of Psychology
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

To view a brief introductory video on computer adaptive technology click here.

DYNHA^® Health Assessments Available Royalty-Free for Scholarly Research:
Note: Some of the DYNHA^® Health Assessments below are functioning prototype applications and may be customized for implementation in a variety of settings.

DYNHA^® Generic Health Status Assessments:

• SF-36 Health Domains (includes the SF-36^® Health Survey and other measures of the eight major domains of health – physical function, bodily pain, vitality, mental health, etc.)
• Pediatric Health and Functioning
• Post-Acute Rehabilitation Care

DYNHA^® Disease/Condition-Specific Health Status Assessments:

• Overall Disease Impact
• Allergic Rhinitis
• Asthma
  • Pediatric Asthma
• Chronic Pain
• Congestive Heart Failure (CHF)
• Diabetes
• Headaches
• Osteoarthritis (OA)
• Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)

Evolving State-of-the-Art Dynamic Health Assessments to Application-Focused Solutions

Dr. Ware and QualityMetric’s Measurement Science and Business Development Teams have become world-recognized leaders of CAT with experience including:

• DYNHA^® collaborations with eight of the world’s most noted clinical research teams, the National Institutes of Health, and other government grant sources to expand the scope of dynamic health assessment to additional disease states and alternative modes of administration.

• Worldwide commercial implementation including pharmaceutical, managed care, clinical, and government settings, resulting in over a quarter of a million dynamic survey administrations conducted to date (July 2004).

"At this point," noted Dr. Ware, "the measurement science and computer technology behind DYNHA^® are established and the practical benefits are proven. Our efforts now are focused on integrating DYNHA^® to achieve outcomes monitoring 'solutions' that are easy to use and that meet the needs of specific applications." Providing royalty-free access to the research community is expected to yield independent studies and to generate feedback on how to improve DYNHA^® features including delivery mechanisms and reports to patients and clinicians. QualityMetric also actively pursues technology partnerships to expand current online availability to include numerous modes of administration (desktop software, enterprise software, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), PDAs and tablets, etc.). "QualityMetric overcame multiple barriers of entry with CAT and can now focus on advancement and refinement," Dr. Ware concluded.

Academic and clinical researchers interested in royalty-free access to QualityMetric’s dynamic health assessments can click here for further information and registration.

Articles for further reading:

1. Ware JE, Jr.: Conceptualization and measurement of health-related quality of life: comments on an evolving field. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 2003 Apr;84(4 Supplement 2):S43-51.

   [This article summarizes personal views on the rapidly evolving field of functional health assessment and comments on their implications for advances in assessment methods used in rehabilitation medicine.]

2. Nine articles in special December, 2003 issue of "Quality of Life Research" on topics relating to the DYNHA^® and the DYNHA^® Headache Impact Test^™.

3. Bjorner JB, Ware JE, Jr.: Using modern psychometric methods to measure health outcomes. Medical Outcomes Trust Monitor 1998;3:11-16.

4. Ware JE, Jr., Bjorner JB, Kosinski M: Dynamic health assessments: The search for more practical and more precise outcomes measures. Quality of Life Newsletter 1999;21.

5. Ware JE, Jr.: Everyone into the "pools": A comment on the future of item banking. ISOQOL Newsletter 2003;8:2.

6. Ware JE, Jr., Bjorner JB, Kosinski M: Practical Implications of Item Response Theory and Computerized Adaptive Testing. Medical Care 2000:38:73-82.