Advancing health and health care requires strong measurement and evaluation capabilities. Ultimately, having data isn’t helpful unless you can say why it matters, and approaches aren’t replicable unless you can say that they worked.
To better understand the challenges and opportunities associated with developing these measurement capabilities, the Institute of Medicine convened a workshop, with support from Blue Shield of California Foundation. The workshop brought together experts from across the health system to discuss the use of data and standardized measures to track progress on our most basic goals: lower costs, better health outcomes, and quality care. The workshop resulted in the publication “Counting What Counts,” which summarizes the meeting’s discussions on the options and approaches for assessing and informing work at every level of our health care system.

Building on this effort, an IOM consensus committee will convene this year to develop a framework and model targets for measuring progress on the three original dimensions, plus a fourth—prepared and involved people.