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Frequently Asked Questions

The Cedars-Sinai Center for Outcomes Research and Education (CS-CORE) offers a wide range of services that fall under the purview of health services research. Members of the CS-CORE work with investigators to conduct the following types of research:

  • Conjoint analysis
  • Cost-effectiveness analyses
  • Cost-utility analyses
  • Cost-benefit analyses
  • Cost-minimization analyses
  • Digital health science
  • Budget impact models
  • Patient-reported outcome (PRO) instrument creation and validation
  • Provider surveys
  • Patient surveys
  • Health-related quality-of-life instrument development and validation
  • Minimal clinically important difference estimations
  • Utility elicitations
  • Systematic reviews
  • Meta-analyses
  • Process intervention randomized trials
  • Multivariable regression analyses
  • Survival analyses
  • Expert panels
  • Guideline development
  • Sample size calculations
  • Statistical analysis of clinical trial data
  • Biostatistical consultation

The term "outcomes research" is non-informative, because every study has some type of outcome. Traditionally, outcomes research refers to research that emphasizes nonbiological, patient-oriented outcomes, such as health-related quality of life, satisfaction with care, costs of care and resource utilization, among others.

Health services research refers to a broader model that includes structure, process and outcomes of care. In this model, outcomes are only one-third of the picture. This model suggests that the structure of healthcare (e.g., buildings, staffing ratios, equipment) affects the process of healthcare (e.g., provider decision-making, physician-patient relationship, etc.) and the process of healthcare in turn affects the outcomes of healthcare.

Members of the CS-CORE are trained in this model of health services research, and are driven to find links between structure and process that ultimately maximize patient outcomes.

A PRO is a questionnaire that is used in a clinical setting where patients are asked to self-report their symptoms. PROs undergo a rigorous creation process with patient involvement from the beginning. Patients are asked to derive concepts of interest relating to a specific diagnosis or condition, asked to comment on versions of the PRO questionnaire during its creation and asked to use the PRO when reporting symptoms in the clinical setting.

PROs are used as outcome measures for clinical trials, as benchmarks of healthcare delivery system quality and for everyday clinical practice.

The availability of wireless services, mobile devices and portable electronics are converging to increase the availability of wireless medical care. This portable care can increase coverage of services to rural communities, where services are limited and often inaccessible, and can also increase the occurrence of real-time monitoring of the health of individuals outside of formal healthcare settings.

Wearable devices that employ wireless technology have the ability to increase early disease detection, monitor rehabilitation and personal health performance, and produce data that can be easily collected, collated and analyzed.

The quantified-self movement in healthcare is anchored by the goal of using technology to drive greater self-awareness through measuring health states, mental and physical functions, and overall well being. Most of the technology monitors are integrated into or extensions of an individual’s smartphone. Whether an application on the phone or a wearable device that communicates data points to the phone, results will be collected that can be viewed, tracked and analyzed.

As an example, our group is developing a wearable biosensor that monitors abdominal digestion using an acoustic monitor placed on the abdominal wall. This sensor communicates with a smartphone to provide information to patients and their providers about various digestive health states.

Have Questions or Need Help?

Contact us if you have questions, or wish to learn more about the Center for Outcomes Research and Education at Cedars-Sinai.

Cedars-Sinai Center for Outcomes Research and Education
Pacific Theaters Building, Suite 800
116 N. Robertson Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90048

Kathy Oka, Research Administrative Coordinator