OBERD announces new Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) technology for all AAOS-recommended outcomes instruments

COLUMBIA, Mo., March 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- OBERD, the industry-leading patient-reported outcomes (PRO) vendor, announced the general launch of Computer Adaptive Test technology (CAT) that has proven to reduce patient's time in completing outcomes surveys for orthopedic procedures. OBERD's CAT technology has been developed and validated for all of the outcomes surveys approved by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery (AAOS).

The OBERD CAT technology will be featured for shoulder and elbow surgery in a forthcoming article in the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow surgery and has been used in both test and live settings by the Geisinger Health System. Ali Hussam, PhD, Founder and CEO of OBERD commented that, "This CAT technology has shown to substantially reduce the time it takes for patients to complete their very important outcomes surveys with negligible deviations from the full form scores. By deploying 'Machine Learning' techniques that tailor questions to the specific traits of the respondent, CAT technology can allow accurate outcome evaluations to be obtained with fewer questions and thus less patient effort." 

Dr. Michael Suk of the Geisinger Health System, and lead researcher in their CAT effort says, "We have carefully reviewed the research and activity data associated with the use of CAT technology for patients to complete our outcomes forms. Our assessment is that it reduces patients' time and effort to complete the forms while providing outcome scores that mirror the full form results. The methodology has been validated for the ASES instrument in a forthcoming publication in JSES (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jse.2018.11.068), and we are extending this work to other joints."

The full complement of CAT capabilities will be announced at the upcoming AAOS annual meeting in Las Vegas beginning on March 13.

About Geisinger
One of the nation's most innovative health services organizations, Geisinger serves more than 1.5 million patients in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The system includes 13 hospital campuses, a nearly 600,000-member health plan, two research centers and the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. Geisinger is known for its focus on caring and innovative programs including the ProvenCare^® best-practice approach to maximize quality, safety and value; ProvenHealth Navigator^® advanced medical home; Springboard Health^® population health program to improve the health of an entire community; ProvenExperience™ to provide refunds to patients unhappy with their care experience; and Geisinger's MyCode^® Community Health Initiative, the largest healthcare system-based precision health project in the world. With more than 215,000 volunteer participants enrolled, MyCode is conducting extensive research and returning medically actionable results to participants. A physician-led organization, with approximately 32,000 employees and more than 1,800 employed physicians, Geisinger leverages an estimated $12.7 billion positive annual impact on the Pennsylvania and New Jersey economies. Repeatedly recognized nationally for integration, quality and service, Geisinger has a long-standing commitment to patient care, medical education, research and community service. For more information, visit geisinger.org or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

About OBERD (Universal Research Solutions, LLC)
OBERD (a.k.a. Universal Research Solutions, LLC) owns, develops, implements and supports outcomes and clinical data collection software systems. OBERD optimizes the data collection necessary to empower evidence-based medical practice, improve the quality and efficacy of care and advance clinical decision-making and patient understanding. OBERD has been collecting patient outcomes data in orthopaedics for over 7 years, with over 10 million scored forms from over 4 million patients in its database. It includes a QCDR, with CMS-approved measures specific to orthopaedics. For more information, visit www.oberd.com, email info@oberd.com or follow the company on Twitter @oberdnews.

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SOURCE OBERD