Measuring Health Outcomes and Experiences from a Patient's Perspective

Abstract

Almost 75 years after the presentation of the WHO definition of health as a “state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” we can’t continue to assess the health status through indicators measuring the burden of disease, disability, mortality, or morbidity, ignoring the other side of the coin of “mental and social well-being”. Quality in health cannot be, exclusively, a clinical success, in terms of diagnosis or treatment effectiveness, it should necessarily involve the patient’s voice and their reflections about how the clinical result fits into their own lives and how they value the medical/surgical success. The great added value of monitoring observable outcomes in patients (Patient Reported Outcome Measures: PROM) and the lived experience of care (Patient Reported Experience Measures: PREM) lies in the fact that health units, managers, and decision-makers can easily quantify how effective health interventions are, at individual or community level.