HONG KONG, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientists from QualityMetric Incorporated, a health outcomes measurement company, were presented with the 2003 ISOQOL Article of the Year Award at ceremonies conducted during ISOQOL’s 11th Annual Conference held at the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine. The Article of the Year Award is presented by ISOQOL to recognize the single best article dedicated to health-related quality of life (HRQOL) research that was published in a peer-reviewed journal during the previous calendar year. The award recognizes the author(s) for significant intellectual contributions that promise to advance the state of the art in HRQOL research methods or theory.
QualityMetric’s award-winning article: J.B. Bjorner, M. Kosinski, and J.E. Ware, Jr. Calibration of an item pool for assessing the burden of headaches: An application of item response theory to the Headache Impact Test (HIT(TM)) Qual Life Res 12 (8):913-933, 2003, is available online or at http://www.qualitymetric.com/Articles. It is part of a nine article series which appeared in a special issue of “Quality of Life Research” (December 2003) on topics relating to the DYNHA(R) Headache Impact Test(TM) and the Headache Impact Survey(TM).
The ISOQOL Board of Directors appointed a Jury of ISOQOL members to serve as reviewers for this award based on their expertise in areas addressed in the articles submitted. The Jury recommended the single article that promised to be the most significant advancement to HRQOL research from all those nominated based on its scientific quality and societal relevance.
About the Authors
Jakob Bue Bjorner, MD, PhD -- Deputy Chief Science Officer, QualityMetric Inc.
Jakob joined QualityMetric in August 2003 as Deputy Chief Science Officer and Director of Research after working as a consultant to the company since its inception. A former Senior Researcher at the Danish National Institute of Occupational Health, Jakob specializes in applying modern psychometric theory to the measurement of health outcomes. Working with QualityMetric’s Science Team, Jakob co-developed the DYNHA(R) software and several computerized adaptive tests of general and disease-specific health outcomes. A physician by training, Jakob also holds a doctorate in medical sociology from the University of Copenhagen, from which he received a gold medal for his research on quality of life and HIV.
Mark Kosinski, MA -- Senior Scientist, Outcomes Insight(TM) Consulting, A Division of QualityMetric Inc.
Mark has worked closely with John during the past twelve years, supporting analyses and improvements to the SF family of generic health surveys. Mark has participated in many methodological studies of health outcomes measurement, including development and validation of the physical and mental health summary scales for the SF-12(R), SF-36(R) Health Surveys, the SF-8(TM) Health Survey, and the Headache Impact Test(TM). Co-author of more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles related to patient-reported health outcomes, Mark has contributed to several manuals and interpretation guides for the SF surveys. Before joining QualityMetric in 1997, Mark was on the team of researchers at The Health Institute, New England Medical Center devoted to the measurement and use of patient-reported health outcomes. Mark holds a master of psychology from Bridgewater State University.
John E. Ware, Jr., PhD -- Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, QualityMetric Inc.
John co-founded QualityMetric Incorporated in 1997, after serving for 12 years as Senior Scientist at The Health Institute, New England Medical Center (NEMC) in Boston, and Principal Investigator for the Medical Outcomes Study, where he created the SF-36(R) Health Survey and other tools widely used to monitor patients’ outcomes. Before moving to NEMC, John spent 13 years as a Senior Scientist at the RAND Corporation. An internationally recognized expert in health-related quality of life assessment, John is a Research Professor in the Department of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, an Adjunct Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and a member of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences.
About QualityMetric Incorporated
QualityMetric Incorporated has integrated the consumer’s voice into health care decision-making with self-reported generic and disease-specific health outcomes surveys used worldwide to measure health status with scientific validity in clinical practice, disease management, population monitoring, clinical trials, and direct-to-consumer marketing. Founded in 1997 by John E. Ware, Jr., PhD, principal developer of the SF-36(R), SF-12(R), and SF-8(TM) Health Surveys, QualityMetric’s scientific expertise has dramatically evolved the value and precision of health-related quality of life measurement while our technology applications, including the world’s first computerized dynamic health assessments (DYNHA(R)), have broadened the options for administration.
Contact: Dawn Giles Sr. Director of Marketing and Business Development QualityMetric Incorporated dgiles@qualitymetric.com 401-334-8800 ext.260
QualityMetric Incorporated
CONTACT: Dawn Giles, Sr. Director of Marketing and Business Developmentof QualityMetric Incorporated, dgiles@qualitymetric.com +1-401-334-8800ext.260
Web site: http://www.qualitymetric.com/