Preface

Excerpt

The assessment of parent- and child-reported outcomes (PCROs) is gaining increasing importance in the management of children with rheumatic disorders. Parents and children (when mature enough to understand the clinical and therapeutic issues related to their disease) are asked with increasing frequency to actively participate in shared decision-making and the integration of their perspective in clinical assessment may facilitate concordance with physician’s choices and improve adherence to treatment. In addition, the use of PCROs may help the physician to identify with greater accuracy the salient issues for each patient and to focus the attention on the relevant matters. It is now agreed that the inclusion of PCROs in clinical practice may lead to improve the quality of care. In keeping with these principles, regulatory bodies such as the Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicine Agency recommend the use of PCROs in paediatric clinical trials. …