Capsule Commentary on Monahan et al., Development and Feasibility of SymTrak, a Multi-Domain Tool for Monitoring Symptoms of Older Adults in Primary Care

Excerpt

Symptoms are the most common reason patients seek medical attention.¹ Even after evaluation, up to one third of symptoms remain medically unexplained.² Monahan and colleagues report on the development and feasibility of SymTrak for monitoring symptoms.³ SymTrak consists of 25 questions that were selected from measures that have a long track record of being reliable and valid, including PROMIS, the Somatic Symptom Scale, the PHQ-15, PHQ-9, GAD-7, the PEG pain scale, and the Healthy Aging Brain Care monitor. The goal of the instrument is to provide clinicians a method of quickly measuring the nature and impact of symptoms in older primary care patients. Probably no one has done more than one of the co-authors of this paper, Kurt Kroenke, to develop instruments that clinicians use in daily practice to assess for symptoms (PHQ-15), Depression (PHQ-9), and Anxiety (GAD-7). His work has been at the crossroads between symptoms and mental disorders for decades. Will SymTrak be as important to future clinicians as his previous instruments? …