title: Outcomes measurement. It's a concept physicians need to understand.
abstract: "The intricate machinery of our health care system can no longer grasp the threads of experience. The mischief that began long before the health care crisis of the 1970s is progressively disabling the vast machinery of medicine. Too often, payers, physicians, and health care executives do not share common insights into the life of the patient. We acknowledge that our common interest is the patient, but we represent that interest from such divergent, even conflicting, viewpoints that everyone loses perspective. As a result, the health care system has become an organism guided by misguided choices; it is unstable, confused, and desperately in need of a central nervous system that can help it cope with the complexities of modern medicine. The problem is our inability to measure and understand the effect of the choices of patients, payers, and physicians on the patient's aspirations for a better quality of life. The result is that we have uninformed patients, skeptical payers, frustrated physicians, and besieged health care executives."
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Lester
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008824:Michigan; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life