New Feature Introduction: PROMs

Able Care is pleased to announce the introduction of a new feature in Able Assess: Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs).

A PROM is a report of a person's health that comes directly from them, with no clinician interpreting the answer on their behalf. It uses a standardized set of questions, asked the same way every time, so answers can be compared between people and tracked over time.

PROMs in Able Assess can be tailored to each organization's needs. By default they are set to the Three Key Questions from the CDC's STEADI (Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths & Injuries) protocol.

Why STEADI starts with a question

The CDC's STEADI algorithm doesn't open with a physical test. It opens with the Three Key Questions:

1. Have you fallen in the past year?
2. Do you feel unsteady when standing or walking?
3. Do you worry about falling?

One "yes" means the person needs further assessment. Fall history, unsteadiness and fear of falling are among the clearest warning signs of a future fall, and only the person can tell you about them. That is why international falls guidance puts these questions first.

Able Assess already delivered the functional side of STEADI: objective measures of strength, gait and balance. With PROMs, the screening questions and the functional tests now live in one workflow. Able Assess now covers the front end of the STEADI pathway: screen, then assess.

How it works

• Built into the screening. The questions appear as a step in an Able Assess screening, or can be run on their own. The Three Key Questions take about 60 seconds.
• Scored the same way, every time. Each answer carries a value. If the total reaches the threshold, the person is flagged at risk. For the Three Key Questions the threshold is 1, so a single "yes" is enough, matching the CDC's STEADI algorithm. Scoring runs on our servers rather than on the device, so results are consistent and cannot be altered.
• Its own signal. PROM risk sits alongside the Able Score and the falls risk flag rather than being blended into them, so you always know which signal fired. Where it helps, it can also feed into the overall falls risk calculation.
• No app update needed. We switch questionnaires centrally, for your whole organization or facility by facility.

What it means for you

Catch risk before the first fall. Picture a resident who has never fallen, but feels unsteady and worries about falling. A fall-history check alone would miss her. The Three Key Questions flag her, and research shows fear of falling predicts future falls, not just past ones.

Know what kind of help to offer. A mobility problem and a fear of falling call for different responses. Because PROM risk is its own signal, your team can see which one they are dealing with and point residents to the right support.

A fuller STEADI picture in one visit. Questions and functional tests happen together, in one record. No separate paper forms to chase.

Results you can track. Every answer is standardized and tied to the exact questionnaire version used, so you can compare results over time with confidence.

Room to grow. The same engine supports other standard questionnaires, from patient satisfaction surveys to the PHQ-9 and research instruments. Senior living communities, home care companies and research teams can run what their setting needs alongside sensor measurements.

Available now

PROMs are live in Able Assess today, with results available through our API. Results in the Able Care web portal, PDF reports and third-party integrations are coming soon.

The STEADI Three Key Questions are already switched on in Able Assess. Want to add other questionnaires, or fit them into your screening workflow? Book a demo or email support@able-care.co.

For a deeper dive and examples, see our technical whitepaper on PROMs.

PROM outcomes support clinical judgment. They do not replace it, and they are not a diagnosis or a prediction that a fall will occur.

Sources

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. STEADI algorithm for fall risk screening, assessment and intervention.
2. Montero-Odasso M, et al. World guidelines for falls prevention and management for older adults. Age and Ageing, 2022.
3. Friedman SM, Munoz B, West SK, Rubin GS, Fried LP. Falls and fear of falling: which comes first? A longitudinal prediction model suggests strategies for primary and secondary prevention. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2002;50(8):1329-1335.