OBJECTIVES: To determine the disease focus of all papers indexed in the PubMed database that included patient-reported outcomes and were published in 2014. METHODS: An evidence surveillance process was established based on a systematic search of PubMed, using key words relevant to the assessment of quality of life and patient-reported outcomes and limited to studies published in English, in humans, with abstracts, and either clinical trials, observational or validation studies or systematic reviews. The surveillance incorporated all studies published from 2010 and was updated weekly. Abstracts identified by the search that included patient-reported outcomes were indexed according to disease area, using the chapter categorisation from ICD-10 as a framework. Articles were included if they reported results or a study protocol from a primary research study or were a systematic review. To account for the delay in indexing of publications, we included all studies with a publication date of 2014 that were indexed in PubMed up to 18 May 2015. RESULTS: The search identified 1,980 articles published in 2014, 1713 of which met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 19% were conducted in patients with cancer, 12% in musculoskeletal disorders, 10% in respiratory disorders, 9% in urogenital disorders, 9% in mental health disorders, 8% in cardiovascular diseases, 7% in gastrointestinal disorders and 5% in neurological disorders. All other disease areas were relatively underrepresented, accounting for 4% or fewer of the relevant publications. CONCLUSIONS: The preponderance of patient-reported outcome studies in patients with cancer reflects the focus of pharmacological research on this topic. Disease areas such as endocrinology and diabetes (4% of abstracts), infectious diseases (2%), acute trauma (1%) and pregnancy (<1%) have been relatively under-researched for their impact on quality of life, despite their substantial impact on morbidity and mortality internationally.