Balancing adaptability and standardisation: insights from 27 routinely implemented ICHOM standard sets

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Value-Based Healthcare
• Clinical Benchmarking

Background:

• Healthcare systems face rising expenditure pressures globally.
• Quality and value-based benchmarking are crucial for clinical evaluation and reimbursement.
• The International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) develops standardized assessments for routine care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To consolidate the ICHOM methodology and analyze insights from 27 implemented Standard Sets.
• To understand the evolution and application of ICHOM Standard Sets in healthcare delivery.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of the ICHOM repository.
• Analysis of ICHOM process documents.
• Key informant interviews with ICHOM's outcomes research team.

Main Results:

• ICHOM Standard Sets evolved from a static disease focus to a dynamic approach considering care setting and feasibility.
• ICHOM Standard Sets complement other patient-reported outcomes (PRO) initiatives due to differing scopes.
• ICHOM employs a pragmatic strategy for healthcare delivery benchmarking.

Conclusions:

• ICHOM Standard Sets focus on healthcare delivery, complementing other PRO initiatives.
• Standardized decision-making processes present a key challenge for ICHOM.
• Consolidating core metrics across disease areas is vital for widespread patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) implementation.