More than hundred healthcare leaders from around the world joined hands recently to inaugurate the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM), a non-profit founded on a simple premise that the universal development and reporting of patient outcomes is the single greatest priority in making high-quality healthcare economically sustainable. In support of our mission 'making a difference', BCG aims at making a tangible and lasting contribution to the world by helping clients across all healthcare sectors transform and improve, and as a result, contribute to better health in the systems in which we all operate and participate.

By drawing from 55 leading measurement efforts to create the first publicly searchable international database of health outcomes measures and by studying and disseminating measurement best practices, ICHOM aims to accelerate the adoption of outcomes measurement in health care - a sector that has long suffered from the absence of systematic ways to assess the actual results of its efforts.

"When I first began studying healthcare years ago, I was stunned to find that outcomes measurement was almost nonexistent in the field," said professor Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, a cofounder of ICHOM, and a coauthor of the book Redefining Health Care. "Nearly every other industry measures outcomes. And when it has been done in health care, the result has always been rapid improvement."

The organization launches at a time when healthcare systems across the globe are facing mounting financial pressures to ration care. Costs are spiraling ever higher, while quality of care continues to fall short. The only solution to this burgeoning crisis is to drive innovation in how care is delivered. But innovation in health care delivery has proved difficult because the field has largely failed to measure outcomes - blinding patients, payers, and even clinicians to the results of the care provided and to how care can be improved.

"Hospital groups that have made outcomes the critical measure for their performance have realised tremendous benefits. Not only are they recognised for delivering outstanding quality, financially they outperform peers by a substantial margin. One of the most important reasons is that an outcomes-based approach can rally support from clinicians, the single most important group of stakeholders that can influence quality and performance” said Bart Janssens, partner and director at The Boston Consulting Group, India.

ICHOM has already convened multi-stakeholder groups for four high-impact medical conditions, such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, hip and knee arthroplasty, and cataracts to agree on a standard set of outcomes measures that will allow comparison of results across health providers internationally. It is also working to facilitate the adoption of more-comprehensive measurement that covers the aspects of health that matter most to patients, such as pain, nausea, and quality of life. And it is studying how leading measurement efforts have achieved success in assessing results and driving change in order to disseminate best practices globally.

"We have to separate what works well for patients from what does not, and that means measuring outcomes," said Stefan Larsson, a senior partner at The Boston Consulting Group, a co-founder of ICHOM. "We cannot continue to invest in treatments that don't work or, worse, cause harm. And we have seen that with the right information, physicians can not only improve outcomes but drive down costs too."

"Poor health outcomes are a human loss, they also represent enormous wasted economic value. In a country like India, where healthcare resources are limited, this value can be utilized to broaden access and care", said Priyanka Aggarwal, principal, healthcare practice of BCG India.