Evaluation of shoulder-specific patient-reported outcome measures: a systematic and standardized comparison of available evidence Stefanie Schmidt, MPH a,b,c , Montse Ferrer, PhD, MD a,c,d, *, Marta Gonz  alez, PhD e,f , Nerea Gonz  alez, PhD f,g , Jos  e Maria Valderas, PhD, MD h , Jordi Alonso, PhD, MD a,b,c , Antonio Escobar, PhD, MD e,f , Kalliopi Vrotsou, MSc f,i , EMPRO Group y a IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), Barcelona, Spain b Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain c CIBER Epidemiolog  ıa y Salud P ublica, Spain d Universitat Aut onoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain e Research Unit, University Hospital of Basurto, Bilbao, Spain f Health Services Research on Chronic Patients Network (REDISSEC), Spain g Research Unit, Hospital of Galdakao-Usansolo, Usansolo, Spain h Health Services and Policy Research Group, Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK i Research Unit, Primary Care-Organization of Integrated Health Services, Gipuzkoa, Spain Background: The aim of this study was to perform a standardized and systematic evaluation of the avail- able evidence on multi-item shoulder-specific patient-reported outcome measures that are applicable to a wide spectrum of disorders. Materials and methods: A systematic review was conducted in PubMed to identify articles with informa- tion regarding the development process, metric properties, and administration issues of shoulder-specific patient-reported outcome measures. Two experts independently reviewed all the articles identified for one instrument and applied the EMPRO (Evaluating Measures of Patient Reported Outcomes) tool, which was designed to assess the quality of attributes in a standardized way. An overall EMPRO score and 6 attribute-specific scores were calculated (range, 0-100) to describe the quality of instrument perfor- mance. Ethical committee approval: not applicable. *Reprint requests: Montse Ferrer, PhD, MD, Health Services Research Group, IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), Doctor Aiguader, 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain. E-mail address: mferrer@imim.es (M. Ferrer). y The EMPRO (Evaluating Measures of Patient Reported Outcomes) Group participants are as follows: Jordi Alonso; Montse Ferrer; Stefanie Schmidt; Olatz Garin; Gemma Vilagut; Angels Pont; Yolanda Pardo; Gabriela Barbaglia; Pere Castellvi; Carlos Garc  ıa-Forero; Ana Redondo; Virginia Becerra; Ester Villalonga; Mireya Garcia Duran; Sonia Rojas; Oriol Cunillera; Jos e Mar  ıa Ramada Rodilla (IMIM [Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute]); Luis Rajmil and Silvia L opez (Catalan Agency for Health Information, Assessment and Quality); Michael Herdman (Insight Consulting & Research SL); Jos e M. Valderas (University of Oxford); Pablo Rebollo (BAP LA-SER Outcomes); Juan Ignacio Arrar  as (Hospital de Navarra); Aida Ribera (Hospital Universitario Vall d’Hebron); Nerea Gonz alez and Miren Orive (Hospital of Galdakao); Gabriela Medin (Hos- pital General Universitario Gregorio Mara~ n on); Amado Ribero (Fundaci on Canaria de Investigaci on y Salud); Susana Garc  ıa and Ir  ıa Mel endez (Hospital Sant Joan de D eu); Marcela Cortes (Iberoamerican Cochrane Network); and Carlota las Hayas (Universidad de Deusto). J Shoulder Elbow Surg (2013) -, 1-12 www.elsevier.com/locate/ymse 1058-2746/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Board of Trustees. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jse.2013.09.029