Conveying statistics and research methods to surgeons and improving PROMs (patient reported outcome measures)

Project researcher: Dr Mary-Rose Harvey, Academic Specialised Foundation Programme

Mary-Rose worked on a number of projects within the PROMs research lab, under the supervision of Professor Jeremy Rodrigues. 

Statistics and Research Methods for Surgeons

Mary-Rose was invited to prepare two Sage Further Knowledge papers in a series covering statistics and research methods, aimed specifically at hand surgeons. The purpose of the series was to make academic research skills accessible to surgeons and improve the quality of research. This series was commissioned by the editorial board of the Journal of Hand Surgery (European Volume).

The first paper was titled “Statistics for the hand surgeon part one: principles and application to hand surgery research” (PMID: 37728884) and the second “Statistics for the hand surgeon part two: avoiding common pitfalls” (PMID: 37747691). 

Improving PROMs with Computerised Adaptive Testing

During her ASFP, Mary-Rose produced three original research papers using computerised adaptive testing (a type of artificial intelligence) to improve patient reported outcome measures (PROMs).

She used modern statistical techniques (psychometric testing, specifically item response theory) to validate the structural validity of specific PROMs. Following this, Mary-Rose created algorithms to develop computerised adaptive tests (CATs) for these PROMs. CATs are a type of artificial intelligence which can be used to shorten outcome measures, reduce biases, and improve precision.

Two of her original papers focused on validating and creating CATs for the two commonly used PROMs in hand surgery, and the third created a “common metric” (i.e. one single scale) for measuring two unique PROMs at the same time.

Other projects

In addition, Mary-Rose acted as an additional author on papers in the PROMs research lab, focusing on outcomes in skin cancer operations and quality of research methods in NIHR funded trials.

She also presented her research at conferences across the UK and delivered teaching sessions to prospective ASFP students.

November 2024