Quality improvement in neurology: Neurology Outcomes Quality Measurement Set

One in 6 Americans live with a neurologic disease.1-3 Recent evidence suggests that the number of people dying from and affected by these disorders has increased substantially in the past 25 years, contributing to a higher health loss across the lifespan.2 The American Academy of Neurology's (AAN's) mission is in part to promote the highest-quality patient-centered neurologic care for these patients, and the AAN's leadership in quality improvement initiatives and developing outcome measures is a conveyance of this mission. Quality, as defined by the National Academy of Medicine, is "the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge."4 Quality improvement is "systematic, data-guided activities designed to bring about immediate improvements in health care delivery"and is considered "an intrinsic part of normal health care operations."5 Data from outcome measures can be effectively used to establish a baseline of care quality delivered within a given health care unit (e.g., multispecialty group)5,6 and guide the implementation and ongoing evaluation of quality improvement initiatives intended to improve care quality and delivery.6 Increasing demands to provide health care outcomes data from patients and payers and the need for neurologic providers to have these data available to assist in care planning necessitated the AAN's former Quality and Safety Subcommittee to recommend the seating of a small work group to develop neurologic outcome quality measures, which would be applicable broadly across major neurologic diseases.