Updates.

National Cancer Institute (NCI) releases algorithms to adjust VR-12 and SF-36 scores in Medicare Health Outcomes Survey (MHOS)

New algorithms are available to adjust VR-12/SF-36 MHOS scores obtained through the administration modes of self-report by phone, proxy response by mail, proxy response by phone, and the languages of Spanish and Chinese. These algorithms ensure that the scores from these administration modes are in accordance with scores that would have been collected if the same respondents had used self-report by mail in English.

Click here to request the algorithms.

Slides are available here.

VR-12 included in MEPS

The VR-12 has recently been added to the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)’s Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Data will be available in 2018.

SPRINT study article using VR-12 published

In August 2017, an article was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, presenting results from the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT) using the VR-12 assessment tool. The article, “Effect of Intensive Blood Pressure Treatment on Patient Reported Outcomes,” indicates that intensive treatment for those with a targeted systolic blood pressure of 120 mm Hg shows little difference compared with routine care with respect to decreased physical or cognitive functioning in terms of quality of life.

Berlowitz DR, Foy CG, Kazis LE, Bolin LP, Conroy MB, Fitzpatrick P, Gure TR, Kimmel PL, Kirchner K, Morisky DE, Newman J. effect of Intensive Blood-pressure Treatment on Patient-reported Outcomes. New England Journal of Medicine. 2017 Aug 24;377(8):733-44.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1611179

Bridges for VR and SF Measures

New bridges have been developed for selected links between the VR and SF surveys. These bridges are available on request with some documentation.

VR-12 Scorer as a Ruby Gem File

Collaborators at Trainer-Rx, Inc. have developed a VR-12 Scorer as a Ruby Gem File, which is available through an open-source code repository. Individuals interested in using this file to score the VR-12 can review the link’s details on how to contact our team at BU to request the weighting files. See links below:

RubyGems: https://rubygems.org/search?query=vr-12

Code Repo: https://github.com/trainer-rx/vr_12_score