The Use of fPROMs in Clinical Practice and Impairment Rating: Reconsiderations for the AMA Guides, Sixth Edition (2021-2023) and Future Versions

Functional patient-reported outcome measures (fPROMs) are tools used in health care to assess patients' subjective experiences of their functioning and quality of life. They are used in clinical practice to guide treatment decisions, monitor treatment progress, and assess the effectiveness of interventions. The use of fPROMs has significantly expanded in the last decade. They reflect one aspect of patient-centered care and quality of treatment. Many of the revisions via the different versions (2021, 2022, 2023) to the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, Sixth Edition, focus on function measurement, and a reconsideration of the patient-reported outcome tools used in the 2008 version is appropriate.