ProPhase partners with Multi Health Systems to standardize electronic adaptations of PANSS

ProPhase LLC, a global provider of applied measurement expertise, is announcing its partnership with Multi Health Systems (MHS), a Canadian publisher of psychological assessments and healthcare outcomes, to optimize and standardize electronic adaptations of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). The PANSS, originally developed in the late 1980s has seen become the most widely used primary outcome assessment in clinical trials for antipsychotic medications. With the increased use of electronic devices to capture outcome assessments in clinical trials, scale authors and publishers are balancing the need to provide easy access to their assessments while assuring that electronic versions remain faithful to the assessments' primary measurement objectives. ProPhase Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Mark Opler, stated, "I am enthusiastic about our work with our MHS colleagues to establish rigorous standards for electronic adaptations of the PANSS. This effort will help ensure that the next generation of drug development has the advantage of novel tools to power electronic clinical outcomes, combined with a psychometrically sound evidence base. It is critical to strike the proper balance between innovation and conservation, moving the field decisively forward while ensuring that the validity and accuracy of our measurement tools remain intact."

ProPhase has collaborated with MHS since its founding, and MHS has selected ProPhase as the exclusive licensing agent for all electronic adaptations of the PANSS. "This partnership reflects our desire to collaborate with companies that share our commitment to ensuring the quality and standards of electronic adaptations. Optimizing the psychometric equivalency of the PANSS is critical to its application across any digital platform." stated Hazel Wheldon, President and COO of MHS, Inc.

ProPhase has taken the pioneering step of developing a methodology for ensuring psychometric equivalency between paper and electronic scale adaptations. This methodology will be used to standardize third party ePANSS applications before they are approved by ProPhase. ProPhase CEO, Dr. Sofija Jovic, stated, "Electronic adaptation is much more than digitizing a paper questionnaire. We are developing ways to use assessment logic and its clinical and measurement goals to improve outcome data quality." ProPhase is committed to ensuring all interested parties that meet the electronic adaptation methodology requirements for the PANSS are issued the license for its electronic use in clinical trials.

SOURCE ProPhase LLC