Prognostic Measures in Ambulatory Care Settings

Specifically, from a random sample of 2000 patients taken from a cohort of established patients followed for at least three years in a general medicine practice, the objectives are:

1. to identify the demographic, clinical, and functional status variable that predict the risk of death, morbid events (e.g., the development of new complications or deterioration of existing conditions), or the deterioration in functional status using a half of the cohort chosen at random;
2. to combine these findings into a prognostic scale that can be employed in routine clinical practice; and
3. to validate the performance of this scale in the second half of the cohort.

There are no interventions in this study. Patients already under medical care by Cornell physicians will be enrolled. The only requirements for patients are to complete the questionnaires on an annual basis.