More Information on iCAHE Outcomes Calculators
Details of all the Outcomes Instruments used in each of the iCAHE Outcomes Calculators can be viewed in the following document: iCAHE OC Benchmarking
The iCAHE Outcomes Calculator has been under development since 1999 by researchers in the International Centre for Allied Health Evidence, and the School of Computing Science (University of South Australia), in a series of staged research strategies. Preliminary investigations comprised:
- Wide-spread data collection from over 2000 clinicians regarding current use of measures of health outcome in clinical practice
- Investigation of requirements of funding bodies regarding health outcomes derived from treatment by clinicians
- Literature review to assess evidence of validity, reliability, sensitivity to change and clinical utility of common measures of health outcome used by clinicians, as well as other measures of health outcome that may be useful for clinicians
- Discussions with health Australian clinicians regarding the barriers and facilitators to regular use of health outcomes in clinical practice and
- Evaluation of the content of common measures of outcome and their usage by researchers and clinicians.
About outcome measures
The term outcome incorporates the health gain and costs associated with treatment. For the management of many conditions, this involves an episode of care (a number of linked occasions of service). Currently the most common type of outcome information is on cost, or number of contacts with the patient.
Our investigations highlighted that most clinicians collect no standard information from patients on health outcome, despite this being the most important information required by health funders. What information is collected is non-standardised, collected at variable time frames throughout the episode, and is usually handwritten in patient notes, which makes it inefficient and less than useful for clinical benchmarking. The need for a simple, efficient mechanism for collecting standard information routinely on patient progress was identified from our preliminary investigations. The Outcomes Calculator software was developed to address this need.
Advantages of using the CAHE Outcomes Calculators
The iCAHE Outcomes Calculators aim to facilitate the use of standardised outcome measures in clinical practice to monitor changes in patient status over time. Patients complete selected outcome measures prior to, or following treatment (without reference to the clinician) and the data can be entered into the iCAHE Outcomes Calculators by administrative staff. This avoids the potential bias by the clinician and ensures that the patient's view of their condition is recognised. The iCAHE Outcomes Calculators automatically compute the score for each outcome measure and use norms for comparison, as appropriate. Summarising outcomes in this way assists in the communication of patient progress between clinicians, patients and funders.
For example, the outcome measures contained within the iCAHE Musculoskeletal Outcomes Calculator have been selected based on their validity, reliability, sensitivity to detect change over time and clinical utility for patient populations frequently treated by physiotherapists. They represent a range of aspects of functioning/disability, which are measured at the level of body functions/structure, the individual and society, as defined by the International Classification of Functioning.
Details on the outcome instruments in each of the five iCAHE Outcomes Calculators can be found under 'Contents' on page 2 of each of the Outcomes Calculator User Manuals.
The iCAHE Outcomes calculator is accompanied by a iCAHE OC User Manual and Software Guide. We encourage users to provide feedback for evaluation, and to enable iCAHE to provide additional information about new versions of the calculator.