Burn injuries to hands are particularly disabling due to decreased functionality and sometimes lack of rehabilitation. Even a small hand burn can affect an individual’s ability to perform daily activities. These injuries also decline the quality of life, especially when a large burn occurs.

Special priority must be given to early active rehabilitation to optimise hand function. In clinical practice, the measurement of outcomes (results and consequences) post hand burn and rehabilitation are essential tools to help clinicians and patients achieve the best results for an improved quality of life.

This project united expertise from clinicians, and patients’ experiences and beliefs, to develop a new outcome measure specific to hand burn injuries.

Post hand burn injury, a number of activities are commonly interrupted, including hand movement, pinch, and grip strength.

Current outcome measures are based on impairment, meaning they measure what the individual cannot perform anymore, as opposed to what they can perform.

This is detrimental to a person-centred approach to recovery, and it can be very frustrating for the patient.

The specific outcome measure for hand burn injuries was co-designed using three essential elements for a best practice: research evidence, clinician expertise, and consumer values and beliefs.

Together, clinicians and patients established a new outcome measure that included eighteen activities to be performed by the injured individuals. To determine its clinical utility, this person-centred test was tested by 20 patients with hand burns and eight other clinicians and patients being treated for hand burn injury. This unique outcome is based on 18 activity patterns, which can be repeatedly measured over time across recovery, a patient benefit and preference.