A patient’s overall experience of healthcare includes much more than just a drug or procedure.

The Healing Encounters and Attitudes Lists (HEAL) is a set of patient-reported instruments that assess nonspecific or contextual factors that can influence treatment outcomes. These nonspecific factors are sometimes dismissed as placebo effect, but understanding how they affect treatment outcomes can benefit patients, providers, and payers. 

Using the instrument development methodology of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) initiative, the HEAL research team identified 6 relevant domains (see figure below). Each domain consists of a set of items that can be administered either as a fixed short form or as computerized adaptive test (CAT), and are designed to be easily integrated into the electronic health record (EHR). 

 

The six HEAL domains and sample items:

* Response options are the same for each item and consist of “not at all”, “a little bit”, “somewhat”, “quite a bit”, and “very much”

** “CAM” is defined for participants prior to answering items

If you are interested in using the HEAL in your clinical practice or research study, click here. 

To learn more about how we created the HEAL, click here.

 

HEAL is supported through a research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NCCAM; 5R01 AT006453).