The Outcomes-based Healthcare Committee

January, 12, 2018

The Outcomes-based Healthcare Committee

Patient outcomes should become the foundation for health policy decisions to preserve the sustainability of EU healthcare systems. In this regard, the EHP Committee on Outcomes-Based Healthcare welcomes the recent publication of the EU-OECD ‘State of Health in the EU’ report. We are pleased to see that our preliminary findings echoed the report’s conclusions presented at the second EHP Plenary on December 5^th, 2017. Significant ground has been covered in collecting “hard” data with the European Core Health Indicators and the EU now has reliable statistics on causes of death, healthcare resources (both human and physical), and health expenditure. However, if we are to measure outcomes (ultimately, what matters most to patients), there remains considerable gaps in data coverage (not all EU countries measure outcomes and there is insufficient patient-centred data).

While healthcare remains the remit of national governments, the EU has unquestionably a leading role to play in facilitating this paradigm shift at the Member State level. In particular, the EU should help improve data collection, harmonisation, and implementation, foster patient-centred care, and facilitate best practice sharing. These developments will be critical steps for Member states to take in order to address some of the most pressing challenges facing EU healthcare (e.g., ageing population, booming healthcare spending, need for a paradigm shift in patient’s engagement, etc.).

As part of our policy research, our committee is currently examining the work of pioneering initiatives such as ICHOM. This multi-stakeholder, research-based platform has built an unparalleled repository of disease-specific data sets (e.g., breast cancer, dementia, diabetes, etc.), identifying core patient-centered outcomes determined by a cluster of healthcare professionals, patients and researchers.

Over the next coming weeks, we will be reaching out to a variety of experts and stakeholders to better assess how the EU could:

• Push for Member States to develop and use well-designed national Health system performance assessment (HSPA) frameworks and leverage ICHOM’s work to develop an EU-wide blueprint for data collection on outcomes
• Develop a database of EU case studies to demonstrate how outcomes measures make a difference in different national settings
• Further encourage the use of real-world evidence (from all sources, including PROMs, e-health, registries, EHRs, etc.) in complement of clinical data
• Help Member States overcome data privacy concerns

Our team feels confident about formulating evidence-based policy recommendations that will help strengthen EU healthcare systems’ transition towards outcomes-based healthcare