Using a scientific method that is reproducible is crucial in the development of quality of life questionniares. As in all scientific endeavors, the process must be objective and repeatable leading to results that can be reproduced.

Just as each medication is targeted to a specific disease, the quality of life questionniare that will be used to evaluate the medication's effects is developed for a specific patient population. Some of the factors that we take into account are: age, gender, disease severity, co-morbid conditions, medical history, country
of origin and cultural considerations.

Health outcomes group is able to quickly identify the problems specific to the target patient population due to our access to the latest literature, and by means of interviews with our network of physicians, clinical specialists and their patients. Perhaps the most important method by which we identify problems is to conduct focus groups and personal interviews with patients to determine which issues are most important to them.

After Health Outcomes Group has developed a list of problems specific to the target population, we reduce the list of relevant problems to those that occur most frequently and are of prime importance to the patients. This subset of problems comprises the basis for the questionnaire. This step is to ensure that we include those problems that affect the greatest number of people and that our questionniare is not overly long or complex.

With more than 15 years of international experience Health Outcomes Group is uniquely positioned to construct wording of
the questions that will minimize difficulties in translation, facilitate appropriate scaling of response options and accomodate for cultural differences.

Prior to using a questionniare it should be pilot tested with several different samples of subjects from your target audience. Pilot testing will assist in revealing problems in understanding that the developer has not anticipated. In most cases pilot testing an iterative procedure, whereby as problems are found and corrected the refined version is refined and re-tested.