POEMs

As the name suggests, a POEM is an outcome that matters to a patient. The study has used an outcome which is a direct measure of:

1. How a patient feels, for example an improvement in quality of life following counselling for depression.
2. How a patient functions, for example an improvement in walking distance following knee surgery.
3. How a patient survives such as a reduction in death from heart attacks with lipid lowering drugs.

The outcome is clinically meaningful. It matters to the patient and of course, therefore, to the health care professional.