Abstract
BackgroundThe International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) was founded in 2012 to propose consensus-based measurement tools and documentation for different conditions and populations.This article describes how the ICHOM Older Person Working Group followed a consensus-driven modified Delphi technique to develop multiple global outcome measures in older persons.The standard set of outcome measures developed by this group will support the ability of healthcare systems to improve their care pathways and quality of care. An additional benefit will be the opportunity to compare variations in outcomes which encourages and supports learning between different health care systems that drives quality improvement. These outcome measures were not developed for use in research. They are aimed at non researchers in healthcare provision and those who pay for these services.MethodsA modified Delphi technique utilising a value based healthcare framework was applied by an international panel to arrive at consensus decisions.To inform the panel meetings, information was sought from literature reviews, longitudinal ageing surveys and a focus group.ResultsThe outcome measures developed and recommended were participation in decision making, autonomy and control, mood and emotional health, loneliness and isolation, pain, activities of daily living, frailty, time spent in hospital, overall survival, carer burden, polypharmacy, falls and place of death mapped to a three tier value based healthcare framework.ConclusionsThe first global health standard set of outcome measures in older persons has been developed to enable health care systems improve the quality of care provided to older persons.
Highlights
The International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) was founded in 2012 to propose consensus-based measurement tools and documentation for different conditions and populations.This article describes how the ICHOM Older Person Working Group followed a consensus-driven modified Delphi technique to develop multiple global outcome measures in older persons
The suggested initial outcomes were chosen based on congruency across findings from the registries, surveys, literature searches and engagement with older people
A minority were chosen based on the consensus experience of the working group members
Summary
The International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) was founded in 2012 to propose consensus-based measurement tools and documentation for different conditions and populations.This article describes how the ICHOM Older Person Working Group followed a consensus-driven modified Delphi technique to develop multiple global outcome measures in older persons. An additional benefit will be the opportunity to compare variations in outcomes which encourages and supports learning between different health care systems that drives quality improvement. These outcome measures were not developed for use in research. Understanding what outcomes matter to patients would be valuable to clinicians and policymakers in aligning health care services to their needs The aim of this project was to define a minimum set of outcomes for evaluating healthcare for older people. An additional goal was to facilitate the creation of databases that can be compared and/or merged for analysis This would support decision making being shared between providers, facilitate quality improvement and allow for benchmarking across organisations and countries
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