NQF Supplement: Toward a Comprehensive Cancer Measure Set -- Episodes of Care
In May 2008, The NCI and the National
Quality Forum (NQF) co-sponsored a workshop, "Towards a
Comprehensive Cancer Measure Set: Value-based Episodes of Care", in
Washington, DC. The purpose of the workshop was to create an action plan for the
development of the next generation of cancer measures, building upon a gap
analysis of needed measures, and discuss a new comprehensive measurement
strategy for evaluating quality and efficiency across episodes of care in
cancer.
The workshop was a major follow-up to the Cancer Quality Measures Project (CanQual), which
identified priority areas for cancer quality measure development, and
recommended a core set of performance measures for breast cancer
diagnosis/treatment, colorectal cancer diagnosis/treatment, and symptom
management and end-of-life care.
Workshop participants:
- Identified quality gaps in cancer care and described the current
state of quality measurement in cancer care, focusing on limitations of
existing performance measures.
- Focused on articulating and analyzing a new framework for
quality measurement based on "episodes of care." This patient-centered
perspective goes beyond existing quality measurement frameworks in
emphasizing care transitions and coordination and the shared
contribution of multiple care providers to the overall quality of care
over time.
- Discussed next steps in developing and operationalizing this new
measurement framework.
Workshop proceedings will inform a white paper on strategic research
directions in cancer performance measurement, co-authored by Peter Bach,
MD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and Michael Hassett, MD,
MPH, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The paper, which assesses the current
state of research in measuring the quality of cancer care delivery and
outlines future directions, is expected to be available in Spring 2009.
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