International Consortium for Health Outcome Measures (ICHOM)
ICHOM is non-profit organisation comprised of leading health experts and patient stakeholders worldwide.
ICHOM MISSION
The International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) mission is to unlock the potential of value-based health care by defining global Standard Sets of outcome measures that really matter to patients for the most relevant medical conditions and by driving adoption and reporting of these measures worldwide.
THEIR PROJECT
ICHOM has developed a number of standardised datasets to measure clinical and patient-oriented, value-based healthcare (VBHC) outcomes in various diseases including cancers of the lung, breast, prostate and colon. The utilisation of a standardised dataset can provide a benchmark for patient outcomes to which new treatments are compared against for effectiveness and cost-benefit.
Each medical condition-specific dataset consists of previously validated clinical- and patient-based quality-of-life questionnaires, a measure of co-morbidity, survival and treatment-related complications. These data are intended to be collected routinely during clinical management and follow-up.
ICHOM Guiding Principles
Full Care Cycle - Outcomes are defined around the full care cycle for a medical condition, not just the specialty or the procedure.
Condition - Clinicians from the multiple specialties who treat patients with a given condition and patients who have experienced or continue to experience the condition define the Standard Set together.
Focus - The Standard Set focuses on outcomes that matter to patients
PROMs - Every Standard Set includes patient-reported outcome measures in order to capture burden, functional status, and quality of life.
Risk Factors - Every Standard Set includes a "minimum set" of initial conditions/risk factors to facilitate meaningful comparisons.
Comparison - All time points, definitions, and sources of data are clearly defined to allow for comparisons.