HSLS Update

Making a PROMIS and Keeping It: HSLS Librarians Collaborate in NIH Roadmap Initiative

Since December 2004, the Health Sciences Library System has been collaborating with investigators from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine PROMIS (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System) project. PROMIS is a multisite, five-year National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research project, with the specific aim of developing new methods of assessing self-reported outcomes in patients with a range of chronic diseases. PROMIS is one of several projects funded through the NIH Roadmap Initiative <http://nihroadmap.nih.gov>.

A key initial goal of the Pittsburgh PROMIS investigators was to harvest questions from all known psychiatric testing instruments used to assess specific patient-oriented outcomes, and to then enter these questions into a central “item bank”.  A team of HSLS faculty librarians—Mary Lou Klem, Ester Saghafi and Rebecca Abromitis—are helping PROMIS reach this goal.  Klem, who also holds a PhD in clinical psychology, was appointed as a co-investigator on the PROMIS grant. The team developed a protocol for conducting comprehensive literature searches to identify currently available self-report questionnaires used for assessing patient reports of emotional distress (e.g. depression, anxiety, anger).  As part of this process, they identified and prioritized information resources that were most likely to yield instruments of interest to investigators. The librarians then developed and refined exhaustive search vocabularies for resources and conducted the literature searches.  They communicated regularly with the PROMIS investigators to review and revise their search strategies and monitor information needs. The searches by HSLS librarians were highly productive, identifying approximately 360 questionnaires that were subsequently entered into the PROMIS databank.

Paul Pilkonis, principal investigator for the Pittsburgh PROMIS site, has acknowledged the collaboration as a unique feature of the project:  “The Pittsburgh group has become a model for the entire PROMIS network.  Our ability to enlist the help of our HSLS colleagues and their talent in creating procedures for searching the research literature and disseminating their results has been a major asset for ensuring the quality of our work.”

Do you have a research project that requires library expertise? HSLS reference librarians are trained to analyze complex questions and formulate expert search strategies. They are available to assist with a wide range of search categories—from large research projects such as PROMIS, to comprehensive literature reviews, or basic search requests.  For more information, contact the reference department at medlibq@pitt.edu or 412-648-8796.

--Mary Lou Klem, Ester Saghafi and Rebecca Abromitis