Third edition offers over 2,100 citations from international scientific literature (1988-2000) on the use of SF measurement tools for health outcomes

Lincoln, RI. - May 5, 2003 - QualityMetric Incorporated, the world's foremost source of patient-reported general and disease-specific health outcomes, today announced a significant update to their SF Bibliography research database, available free to site visitors at www.sf-36.org. Serving an international community of academic researchers, pharmaceutical companies, health plans, disease management companies, and care providers, the SF Bibliography: Third Edition (1988-2000) represents a collaborative effort between QualityMetric and the Health Assessment Lab of Boston, and provides free access to a reference list of more than 2,100 scientific publications presented internationally on the SF-36®, SF-12®, and SF-8™ Health Surveys, and others in the QualityMetric family of general health and disease-specific patient-reported outcomes.

George Papadopoulos, BSc, Grad Dip Epi, Director of Health Economics & Pricing, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Global Strategic Marketing, regards the SF Bibliography as a, "key asset to QualityMetric's product and service offering. The SF Bibliography documents that QualityMetric's patient-reported outcomes do what they say they will, which is obviously critical in a clinical trial process."

According to QualityMetric's chief executive officer and chief science officer, John E. Ware, Jr., PhD, "With the increasing ubiquity of the SF-36, it has become harder to identify relevant publications because the name of the survey tool is less likely to appear in a journal title, abstract, or among published keywords. The name of the survey tool is usually embedded in the text of the article, and a full-text review is required to solve this problem. Because the number of different journals publishing one or more SF-36 articles has grown dramatically, to nearly 1,000 through 2002, the breadth of searches must be much wider. In a nutshell, investigators who do not use our SF Bibliography are unlikely to know about many of the articles that are most relevant to their work," Ware concluded.

Other major bibliographic databases cover less than half the world's literature and are biased towards English language publications. The SF Bibliography is a thoroughly researched global resource in health outcomes measurement and covers articles in over 40 language translations.

About QualityMetric Incorporated: QualityMetric Incorporated, an independently and privately held corporation located in Lincoln, RI, was founded in 1997 by John E. Ware Jr., PhD, principal developer of the SF-36®, SF-12®, and SF-8™ Health Surveys. For more information, contact: QualityMetric Incorporated, 640 George Washington Highway, Lincoln, RI 02865, USA. Fax: 401-334-8801.