Economic Outcomes in Patient-Centered Outcomes Research

Abstract

P atient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) is designed to generate high-quality evidence important to patients and families, clinicians, and policymakers about treatments, services, and other health care interventions. PCOR studies have traditionally focused on understanding causal relationships among the use of health care treatments and services, treatment effects, and clinical outcomes. That focus has broadened to include a more holistic understanding of health and well-being, including the significant economic impacts of health care use on individuals, families, and their communities, such as out-of-pocket spending and informal caregiving needs. In many cases, data to study the economic impacts of health care from the perspective of individuals, families, and communities are unmeasured, not routinely collected, or unavailable for research. The growing recognition that economic factors often impact health outcomes, decisionmaking, and equity in health care is the impetus for the articles in this special issue of Medical Care.