Introduction: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) quantitative data are increasingly accompanied by qualitative narrative data, which does not always provide the insights required to inform healthcare.
Areas covered: This perspective considers how story completion (SC) may be used to gain a deeper insight on people's experiences and guide interpretation of the meaning of PROM responses.
Expert opinion: Story completion (SC) is an epistemological approach involving participants telling a story in response to a pre-determined 'stem' they have been presented with.
Keywords: Patient reported outcomes; patient narrative; qualitative research; quantitative PROM data; story completion.