Article
作者: Thomas, Megan ; Woodworth, Thasia G ; Strand, Vibeke ; Kruzikas, Denise ; Goel, Niti ; Voshaar, Marieke ; Balay-Dustrude, Erin ; Ioannidis, John P A ; Bartlett, Susan J ; Christensen, Robin ; Richards, Pam ; Hazlewood, Glen S ; Cowern, Mary ; Hoens, Alison M ; Simon, Lee ; Berthelsen, Dorthe B ; Boers, Maarten ; Djurtoft, Chris ; Jørgensen, Tanja Schjødt ; Dagsvik, Krista ; Choy, Ernest ; Haugegaard, Tobias ; Torralba, Karina ; Furst, Daniel E ; Bingham, Clifton O ; Horgan, Ben ; Böhm, Peter ; Tugwell, Peter ; Shea, Beverly J ; Wright, Grace ; Musaus, Joachim ; Kelly, Shannon E ; Flurey, Caroline ; Weinbrecht-Mischkewitz, Max ; Bouillot, Coralie
OBJECTIVES:To build on existing evidence regarding single-item measurement instruments of patient-reported bother or trouble from medical side effects in individuals with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs). Further, to collect input from the OMERACT community through a structured survey that rated and ranked available options and to seek agreement to advance one or more of these measures for use as exploratory outcomes in future clinical trials.
METHODS:At OMERACT 2025 we presented and discussed survey results for domain match, feasibility and ranking of six candidate instruments of bother or trouble from side effects. Collaborator feedback - including comments from patients, clinicians, and researchers - was synthesized with a large-language-model (LLM) to identify key concerns and guide refinement of the instrument's relevance, clarity, and acceptability. The LLM-assisted synthesis of participant comments resulted in a new, single-item instrument designed to improve patient safety reporting from the patient's perspective.
RESULTS:The merged and modified version of the instrument was presented at the OMERACT 2025 meeting, where 33 participants approved it as a reasonable approach to incorporate collaborator input. The proposed instrument is feasible (32 [97%]) and voting supported advancing its further assessment (30 [91%]) as an exploratory outcome measurement instrument in coming RMD trials.
CONCLUSION:We developed a novel single-item instrument. This is the first known application of LLMs in refining a patient-reported outcome instrument for clinical trials. It is designed to capture the patient perspective on symptomatic treatment-related side effects in RMDs and is supported for exploratory use in trials.