New international measure for patients suffering serious trauma injuries
New Zealand has played a part in the development of the first globally accepted health outcomes measures for patients suffering serious trauma injuries.
The Patient-Centered Outcome Measures for Major Injuries were released by the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) earlier this year and is the subject of a recent article in the eClinicalMedicine journal published by The Lancet.
ICHOM is a non-profit organisation that works to advance the standardised measurement and reporting of treatment outcomes that matter most to patients for a range of conditions. It convenes working groups of global patients, clinicians, and academics to define internationally recognised sets of patient-centred outcome measures.
The aim of the measures is to help improve collaborative decision-making practices between patients and healthcare providers, allow benchmarking across organisations and improve the overall quality of care.
The Major Injury (MJI) Set will measure improvements in the quality of care from acute trauma to rehabilitation and chronic disability.
The MJI working group included representatives from 11 countries, including The Netherlands, USA, China, Saudi Arabia, and New Zealand.
The Commission’s Clinical Lead – Rehabilitation Trauma, Kat Quick, was one of two New Zealand clinicians involved.
She says patients and health professionals from New Zealand played an important part in this project.
“It was a great experience to be involved as a New Zealand representative on the international peer review group for the development of the major injury trauma set.
“In order to establish where our trauma system performs well and where it needs improvement, we need to start collecting information from patients on what is important for their recovery.
“This major injury set provides an international benchmark for us to aspire to.
“Many New Zealand patients and professionals provided feedback on the proposed set, giving us confidence that it is transferable to a New Zealand context”.