- Joined
- Nov 5, 2009
- Messages
- 15,318
- Reason
- Lost a loved one
- Diagnosis
- 00/0000
- Country
- US
- State
- WA
- City
- Seattle
Everything about this European implementation of a previous ALSA-funded US survey is bogus. Being published in a clinical journal and headlined in Mobility Management as "People with ALS Report 'Acceptable' Quality of Life" is just icing on the cake. To read this abstract is to appreciate how barren ALS outcomes research really is.
For perspective, I did patient/caregiver research much more sophisticated than this in SCI and MS, 20 years ago, and have served on federal panels evaluating patient-centered outcomes study funding applications-- the worst of which was better than this.
Outcomes work is often used in designing/justifying clinical trials, so we should not be settling for scholarly characterizations of the P/CALS context that are this tepidly misleading. Some of you are involved in various ALS initiatives. If/as you have a chance to suggest more actionable constructs, I hope that you will speak out.
For perspective, I did patient/caregiver research much more sophisticated than this in SCI and MS, 20 years ago, and have served on federal panels evaluating patient-centered outcomes study funding applications-- the worst of which was better than this.
Outcomes work is often used in designing/justifying clinical trials, so we should not be settling for scholarly characterizations of the P/CALS context that are this tepidly misleading. Some of you are involved in various ALS initiatives. If/as you have a chance to suggest more actionable constructs, I hope that you will speak out.