QOLIX® Overview

QOLIX® is a web-based Patient-Reported Outcomes (PRO) monitoring system that integrates and standardizes generic and disease-specific PRO measures and greatly improves measurement efficiency in comparison with familiar legacy PROs.

The QOLIX system has three major parts:

  • QGEN®, which provides generic profiles and physical and emotional health summary measures that maintain backward score comparability with the metrics underlying the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) SF-36®, SF-12® and other MOS-derived health surveys.
  • QDIS®, disease-specific impact measures that represent 10 quality of life (QOL) content areas, differing only in their attribution to a specific disease, and are the first to standardize content and norm-based scoring across diseases. QDIS begins with a 35-item chronic condition checklist and automatically adapts to the assessment of QOL impact for primary and comorbid conditions enabling a standardized overall comorbidity impact estimate.
  • ASLX®, Adaptive Survey Logic, a patent-pending method which greatly improves measurement efficiency and is proven to reduce respondent burden more than routine computer adaptive tests (CAT).

QOLIX, as a complete system or as separate QGEN or QDIS components, is available for administration in U.S. English and German. Other translations can be made available. QOLIX also allows for the addition of custom modules, for example legacy disease-specific and generic measures.

QOLIX® Components

QOLIX contains multiple components, working in tandem to provide more comprehensive PRO measurement and reliability over a wider range of scores than any other system available today.

Adaptive Survey Logic (ASLX®)

JWRG developed adaptive survey logic (ASLX) to maximize the efficiency of generic and disease-specific PRO assessments, to reduce respondent burden, and to achieve the level of score precision needed over the wide range of outcomes in heterogeneous populations. In a nutshell, the ASLX System automatically adapts to the presence and severity of multiple chronic conditions and adapts generic and disease-specific measurement (including whether and how much to measure) to better match the requirements of each specific purpose. Whereas CAT logic is useful in selecting the most informative survey items, CAT alone is not efficient in determining whether adaptive measurement should be performed in the first place. ASLX increases the efficiency and usefulness of PRO measurement by screening first for the impact of each chronic condition reported and then adaptively increasing both disease-specific and generic measurement for individuals when decisions require greater PRO precision.

QGEN® Generic Health Measures

The generic health QOLIX module (QGEN) is comprised of 10 content domains, including the 8 domains in legacy MOS health surveys. QGEN is available as 10-item and longer length static forms and also using adaptive administration in which respondents typically have answered about 30 questions. Regardless of form, scores for the 10 generic domains are used to estimate generic health profiles as well as summary PHGS™ (Physical Health General Score) and EHGS™ (Emotional Health General Score) measures, all of which are standardized and normed to have a mean of 50 (SD=10) in the general US population in 2011 (higher QGEN scores indicate better QOL).

Generic Domains
General Health Physical FunctioningPain Impact
Role General Role PhysicalRole Emotional
Social Functioning VitalityHealth Distress
  Emotional Health 

QOLIX® Chronic Condition Checklist

The QOLIX Chronic Condition Checklist asks the patient whether they were ever told by a doctor that they have any of a list of 35 frequently-screened conditions. Additional user-specified conditions can be added. All conditions reported are listed in the primary QOLIX report.

Chronic Condition Checklist
Anemia Diabetes Limitation in the use of an arm or leg
Angina Enlarged prostate (BPH) Liver infection (Hepatitis B or C)
Asthma Fibromyalgia Migraine headaches
Cancer, except skin cancer Heart attack (myocardial infarction) Obesity
Chronic allergies or sinus trouble HIV or AIDS Osteoarthritis, degenerative arthritis
Chronic back problems or sciatica Hypertension Osteoporosis
Chronic fatigue syndrome) Hypothyroidism Rheumatoid arthritis
COPD Impotence/erectile dysfunction (ED) Seasonal allergies
Clinical depression Irritable bowel syndrome Stroke
Congestive heart failure Joint problems of the foot or ankle Ulcer or stomach disease
Deafness or other trouble hearing Joint problems of the hip or knee Vision problems
Dermatitis or other chronic skin conditions Kidney disease  

QDIS® Disease Impact Scale

The Quality of Life Disease Impact Scale (QDIS) measures the quality of life impact attributed to each chronic condition reported, using 1 to 7 items per condition. QDIS fills the gap between disease-specific scales that do not measure QOL and generic QOL scales that do not measure specific disease impact. The content of items in each disease bank represents the same 10 content areas: physical functioning, mobility, role functioning, social activity, fatigue, sleep, emotional well-being, cognitive functioning, health outlook, and quality of life. However, in contrast to generic forms of QOL items that make attributions to “health,” each QDIS item makes an attribution to a specific disease or condition. QDIS is available and has been evaluated in short fixed-length and adaptive forms; the latter can employ ASLX which more efficiently measures the impact of a primary condition and each comorbid condition. An overall comorbidity impact score combining standardized QOL impact ratings also can be estimated. All QDIS scores are normed to have a mean of 50 (SD=10) in the chronically ill general US population (higher QDIS scores indicate worse QOL impact).

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