By Practice Research and Policy Staff
August 29, 2011— A new resource for APA members allows psychologists to search for information about a range of outcome measures suitable for professional practice. Launched in July 2011, PracticeOUTCOMES: Measures for Psychologists began as a pilot project of the 2010 APA Presidential Task Force for Advancing Practice.
The task force was created to develop a strategy for APA members to proactively monitor outcomes in their practices. Over the course of the year, the task force reviewed existing APA policy specific to outcomes assessment and surveyed the professional literature to identify gaps in and needs of professional practice.
The task force ultimately determined that additional APA policy was not required. Rather, psychologists needed to easily identify, review and select measures suitable for their practice.
To that end, the task force conceptualized the development of a comprehensive, searchable database of measures that psychologists can use to monitor patient progress in treatment. The resulting product is PracticeOUTCOMES: Measures for Psychologists.
Access to PracticeOUTCOMES is free to all APA members. This practical tool contains information on measure domains, features, costs and reliability, among other indicators. The database also allows members to compare measures side by side in order to help psychologists choose the right outcome measure for their practice.
All outcome measures meet scientific criteria for inclusion. Approved measures are relevant to practice, are appropriate for monitoring patient progress in treatment, have a reliability range 0.70 or above and have sufficient evidence supporting the use of the measure for the identified population and for the intended purpose.
The database includes basic and advanced search options. New measures are being added daily.
Members can access PracticeOUTCOMES through their MyAPA account under the preset PracticeOUTCOMES link in their APA tool box or by going to PracticeOUTCOMES website.
If you are the author of a measure and would like to submit it to be considered for inclusion in PracticeOUTCOMES, please email the PracticeOUTCOMES staff team.
Other questions and comments about PracticeOUTCOMES also may be directed to PracResearchPol@apa.org. Member feedback on system features and usability is welcomed.