OBJECTIVES: As healthcare becomes more patient-centered, patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are assuming a growing role in different aspects of care. Avalere sought to define a conceptual framework on the criteria for defining, implementing, and translating PROs into valid, reliable measures of performance. METHODS: Conducted a structured literature review to identify influencers in the translation of PROs, issues that impact translation, and relationships between key variables. RESULTS: Various stakeholders (including researchers, industry, academia, FDA, clinicians, and payers) play an important role in translation. Avalere defined four stages in the translation of PROs: issue identification, research, clinical practice, and implementation in quality and performance measurement. Literature revealed that PROs for research purposes must be developed, tested, and evaluated with baseline science standards in mind, such as psychometric soundness, rigor, validity, generalizability, and aggregatability. PROs used in clinical practice are subject to additional criteria considering the science behind practicality, interoperability, and timing/mode of administration. At the implementation stage, there is the opportunity to define a particular outcome or process of care that can be assessed by a PRO. Once rigorously evaluated for scientific acceptability, feasibility of data collection, and other criteria, PRO measures can be implemented in quality reporting or payment programs with established benchmarks. CONCLUSIONS: Stakeholders are still ironing out the “kinks” of the development, use, and implementation of PROs. Our conceptual framework for PRO translation can provide a starting point for stakeholders interested in applying best practices to the routine use of PROs in clinical trials and at the point of care, and as PRO measures become more sophisticated, in quality reporting and payment programs.