Approximately 11,000 veterans annually are hospitalized with a newly acquired incident stroke. Based on American Heart Association ratios of stroke incidence and prevalence, up to 80,000 veterans may be stroke survivors. The assessment of outcomes in stroke survivors is important for clinical practice and research, yet there is no consensus on the best measures of stroke outcome in either clinical practice or research. We have developed a new stroke-specific outcome measure, the Stroke Impact Scale (SIS), to capture physical function and other dimensions of health-related quality of life.