Measuring clinical findings: the value of clinimetrics

Abstract

The term “clinimetrics” indicates a domain concerned with indexes, rating scales and other expressions that are used to describe or measure symptoms, physical signs and other clinical variables. Clinimetrics, the science of clinical measurements, has a set of rules that govern the structure of indexes and their consistency, validity and discrimination properties, as well as the choice of component variables. A unique feature of clinimetric indexes are broad global ratings of clinical manifestations that would otherwise be scattered, such as in the case of comorbidity (e.g. the Charlson Comorbidity Index). There have been major developments in the assessment of subjective health status and of psychosocial aspects. The use of indexes may improve the quality of data collection both in medical practice and clinical trials. Clinimetrics enlarges the scientific basis of clinical practice and provides an intellectual home for clinical judgment.