Clinical shoulder practice is based on assessing the range of motion, comfort and function of the shoulder both before and after treatment. With more money, you can get greater precision and detail. This is true for many types of measurements. The level of precision, accuracy and detail required depends on the question that needs to be answered.
For example, the authors of Test-retest reliability of isometric shoulder muscle strength during abduction and rotation tasks measured using the Biodex dynamometer found that shoulder muscle strength in abduction and rotation measured with the pricey Biodex dynamometer (see this link) are reproducible and correlate with the strength assessment of the Constant Score; under what circumstances is the increased cost worth it? Furthermore, the Constant Score itself requires the costs of travel and a clinic visit (see this Constant–Murley Score: systematic review and standardized evaluation in different shoulder pathologies).
By contrast, validated mail-in questionnaires assessing shoulder comfort and function avoid the costs of equipment, travel and an office visit and provide information on the patient’s ability to perform individual shoulder…
