Item Library Guidelines
Project summary
The overall objective of this project is to create internationally agreed guidelines for the development and utilisation of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Item Library.
The EORTC Quality of Life Group (EORTC QLG) develops patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for use in quality-of-life research, clinical trials, and increasingly routine cancer care. A key resource in the development of these measures is the EORTC Item Library, an online and interactive resource, currently comprising over 950 unique items from the EORTC QLG’s portfolio of scientifically based quality of life questionnaires and modules specific to cancer tumour sites and types of treatment.
A key growth area for the Item Library is supporting flexible usage of PROMs through creation of customised item lists, capturing symptoms and issues which may not be covered by existing questionnaires e.g., related to new treatments or techniques or different clinical settings. This project aims to create internationally agreed guidelines for the development and utilisation of the EORTC Item Library, Item Lists, and multi-item measures for all users.
In this project, a review of the literature will be conducted to determine the ways in which item libraries are currently being utilised within oncology research. Further to this, the Delphi survey method will be used to establish consensus between multiple international stakeholders on the selection of information proposed for inclusion in the new guidelines.
Achievements
- Written study protocol and systematic review protocol
- Registered systematic review protocol with PROSPERO, an international database of prospectively registered systematic reviews in health and social care.
- Received ethical approval from University of Leeds
- Completed literature searches, title and abstract screening and full paper screening.
Future plans
Conducting systematic review. Data extraction forms have been piloted and extraction is about to start.
For patients
The objective of this project is to create guidelines that better help people use the EORTC Item Library in their research. The Item Library is a database which contains all the questions developed by the EORTC Quality of Life Group and currently includes over 950 different questions. The use of the library is varied, and the guidelines will help people to better understand the ways in which it can be used across a range of settings. For example, in the creation of flexible questionnaires through the use of customised item lists, that capture symptoms and issues which may not be covered by existing questionnaires.