Therapy outcome measures for allied health practitioners in Australia: The AusTOMs

Abstract

Objective. The aim of this study was to develop a valid and reliable measure of therapy outcome for three allied health professions in Australia: speech pathology, occupational therapy, and physiotherapy. The Australian Therapy Outcome Measures (AusTOMs) enable measurement of the differences in client profiles and patterns of services provision across health care settings. In this paper we describe phase 1 of the study: the development and preliminary validation of the AusTOMs. Method. The UK TOMs, developed by Enderby, were scrutinized by the research team. A pilot core scale was developed, based on the structure of the TOM. Focus groups of expert clinicians for each profession, across the ..