ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the nature and cause of the disease and epidemic, and examines problems in traditional paper-based data capture. It outlines how ePRO solutions can address these problems. The chapter reviews how the concepts in regard to data capture in the context of obesity may be extended to other conditions. In times of famine or natural disaster, obesity probably conferred a significant survival advantage so that human populations that were forced through famine-driven genetic bottlenecks were selected for genetic traits for obesity. Electronic methods are potentially also of great value in the regular provision of health care to patients. The model is often a bit different when ePRO is used in this way. Data are not averaged over a large sample to support the efficacy of a treatment, but are used either directly by the patient or by the practitioner responsible for adjusting the patient's treatment.