New outcome measurements instrument introduced

Integrative Outcome Measurements (IOM) has launched a web-based survey instrument that will allow wellness professionals, including chiropractors, to quantify an individual’s level of wellness pre- and post-care.

“It’s important that all health care providers have an inexpensive but effective way to measure the overall wellness of the people they’re dealing with,” states Mario Salguero, MD, PhD, an IOM researcher . “In this age of evidence-based care, doctors must have scientific evidence that validates the effectiveness of their care. This evidence has to be understandable to laypeople.” Dr. Salguero is a graduate of University of California San Diego Medical School. After graduating he earned a Diploma of Clinical Nutrition at the National Institute of Nutrition and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology with a PhD in Molecular Biology.

IOM is an online Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) tool that uses protocol similar to the popular SF-36 questionnaire developed by the RAND Corp. A study of the growth of quality-of -life measurements published in the British Medical Journal in 2002, judged the SF-36 the most widely evaluated generic patient assessed health outcome measure.

Health-related quality of life refers to a person's ability to enjoy normal life activities and takes into consideration five key elements of wellness, including:

general health

physical health

emotional well-being

stress

life enjoyment

On April 7, 1948, the World Health Organization established its definition of health as: "... a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." The definition, which was considered radical in its time because it took a more holistic view of the term, is still in use today.

A more recent and expanded definition, from the Quality of Life Research Unit at the University of Toronto states that quality of life encompasses "the goodness and meaning in life, as well as people's happiness and well-being" It goes on to say that from their perspective, "the ultimate goal of quality of life study and its subsequent applications is to enable people to live quality lives -- lives that are both meaningful and enjoyed."

In its ground-breaking report, "Measuring Healthy Days," the US Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that, despite the WHO definition, "…health in the U.S. has traditionally been measured narrowly and in the negative. What is measured is ill health in its severe manifestations, those which are verifiable through physical examination and other objective procedures or tests… Such traditional measures of morbidity and mortality provide information about the lowest levels of health, but they reveal little about other important aspects of an individual’s or a community’s level of health."

That's why, Dr. Salguero explains, health and wellness professionals have sought new ways to get a more complete measurement of an individual's total state of well-being, or quality of life.

The multi-dimensional Self-Reported Quality-of-Life survey provided by Integrative Outcome Measurements incorporates many of the core concepts of the SF-36 Health Survey as well as refinements in the survey developed for use in specific healthy populations. The IOM survey covers physical, mental/emotional, stress evaluation and life enjoyment domains of health. This instrument has been validated and applied to several other populations undergoing wellness interventions.

After completing the survey, individuals receive a graphic representation of their results, and a description of the findings.

“By using the power of the internet, IOM offers all health and wellness professionals the ability to have patients and clients take these comprehensive health-related quality-of-life surveys in the privacy of their home, at their convenience,” Salguero points out.

Wellness providers pay a monthly subscription fee of $95 for unlimited use of the IOM survey instrument. They can freely distribute their personalized access code to patients and members of their community, who can log onto the site and take the survey at no charge. After completing the questionnaire, individuals receive their overall wellness score and are able to compare it to the medium score of all people in the IOM database. They are directed to the IOM members’ office for additional information, including a breakdown and interpretation of the score for each of the five wellness components.

Individuals under care take the survey periodically and the pre- and post-care results are compared to determine improvements in any or all of the five wellness indicators. The results can also be used for case studies and survey research.

“We envision doctors, as well as health researchers, using IOM to measure the changes in overall wellness, as well as specific wellness factors, after use of interventions as disparate as chiropractic, yoga training, stress reduction programs, acupuncture, and even life coaching,” says Salguero.

Subscriptions are month-to-month, with no contract or membership term requirements, and are available to all professionals who provide services intended to assist patients and clients in leading healthier lives. More information is available at www.IntegrativeOutcomeMeasurements.com.