Value on the Front End: Making the Effective Diagnosis for Optimal Treatment

Much effort is being made to quantitate and improve the outcomes associated with medical treatment. These outcomes are defined as how the patient did after an intervention and may be termed "value on the back end" of the treatment process. The diagnosis guides the content and timing of the treatment, and may be considered the "value on the front end" that optimizes the treatment process. The diagnosis can be defined as "that body of information, collected through the process of evaluating the patient's health problem, that determines the content and timing of the treatment of the health problem." An Institute of Medicine monograph has documented "troubling" deficiencies in the diagnostic process and has suggested guidelines to establish a comprehensive and effective diagnosis, which should include anatomic and patient-derived factors, have multidisciplinary input, have implications for treatment content and timing, and relate to outcomes. The monograph establishes a linear relationship and direct linkage between the diagnosis and treatment. There is much evidence in orthopaedics that these deficiencies exist and often limit the implementation of the most beneficial treatments. Efforts should be made to improve the effectiveness of the diagnostic process to optimize the entire treatment process. The 5 A's framework can be used as a template for the accumulation of information that can guide the treatment process.