Salt Lake City, April 17, 2018 – Despite millions of Americans suffering from Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), the U.S. health care system is not adequately detecting, assessing, or treating many people with this disease. Today, Leavitt Partners released a white paper entitled “Driving Depression Care Forward by Optimizing Quality Measures” that captures insights from experts regarding how to improve depression care.
Quality measures can be used to evaluate care delivery systems and processes and assess whether they result in good patient outcomes. A roundtable of nine public, private, and non-profit sector thought leaders was convened by Leavitt Partners, in collaboration with Takeda and Lundbeck, in October 2017 to review existing quality measures related to MDD diagnosis and treatment, and to discuss challenges and gaps in quality measures and care for MDD. Collectively, these key thought leaders recommended effectively utilizing measurement tools to help drive better depression care through improved screening, monitoring, and outcome assessment. Moreover, they recommended moving from a focus on process measures and the assessment of symptoms to a well-defined and prioritized use of structural and functional outcome measures. Ultimately, for quality measures to have a meaningful impact on patient care, these thought leaders agreed that the focus must be relevant to both health care professionals (HCPs) and patients, and any enhancements to quality reporting must address the tension between standardizing measurement and restricting HCPs choices.
Developing appropriate quality measurement tools spanning structure to functional outcomes assessment, coupled with the effective use of the data collected, are critical to improving care for people with MDD. Efforts to improve quality measurement and care for MDD can be advanced through an ongoing multi-stakeholder initiative, supporting the efforts of measure stewards willing to champion the development of the measures, and driving the adoption of the measures in practice.
The white paper can be viewed here.
About Leavitt Partners:
Leavitt Partners is a health care intelligence business. The firm helps clients successfully navigate the evolving role of value in health care by informing, advising, and convening industry leaders on value market analytics, alternative payment models, federal strategies, insurance market insights, and alliances. Through its family of businesses, the firm provides investment support, data and analytics, member-based alliances, and direct services to clients to support decision-making strategies in the value economy. For more information please visit www.LeavittPartners.com.