The Focus Group(FG)technique is a discussion forum that allows the access to valuable information generated by a group of people under controlled conditions. This is especially useful to explore complex health and psychology-related topics. Moreover, it has the advantage of being fastest and less expensive than individual interviews and qualitative research techniques. It has also the advantage of incorporating the patients' perspective into the problem analysis and facilitating the interaction to obtain information that would be otherwise inaccessible. In addition, patient's intervention helps to explore new dimensions of the problem as well as to generate creative ideas giving room for spontaneity and flexibility. Nevertheless, and despite of these theoretical advantages the incorporation of the FG technique into the development of QoL questionnaires is apparently somewhat low. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the level of utilisation of the of FG technique in the development of health related QoL questionnaires. METHODS: A systematic search of the Medline database from 1993-2003 has been performed. The descriptors used were "quality of life", "questionnaire" and "focus group". RESULTS: Our search indicated that from 67 studies that met our search criteria only 16 used the qualitative technical of FG in the phase of the development of QoL questionnaires. It is important to point out that 10 out of these 16 publications, in which the FG technique was used, were published during the last 3 years, showing a positive trend. CONCLUSIONS: Although in the last years there has been a slight increase in the use of FG technique, we consider that it would be necessary to emphasize the importance of this qualitative technique into the development of the QOL questionnaires. This would enhance the active role of patients, taking into account both, incorporation of the patient's perspective into the analysed problem and identification of other aspects more difficult to approach by the clinician.