Methodological Innovation in Clinical Measurement


Accurate measurement is a cornerstone of high quality research and clinical practice. Health services research in particular, which encompasses clinical trials, health technology assessments and epidemiology, relies on accurate measures to provide robust and reliable data which can be used to improve patient outcomes.

Too often we feel frustrated by not being able to compare or understand the results of clinical trials, because the measures used to evaluate success or failure are flawed, incomplete or incomparable across different studies or healthcare settings. However, simply understanding the strengths and weaknesses of different measures is as unsatisfactory. Developing more accurate measures, improving generalisability and promoting the adoption of best practices are important goals for practicing clinicians and health services researchers, in general, and for the HSRC in particular.

Key objectives for the HSRC include:

  • Evidence synthesis
  • Developmental innovation
  • Promoting uptake of clinical measures which can be used in everyday practice and in clinical research

We have an established systematic review programme which is currently focusing on risk and outcome measures in non-cardiac, non-neurological surgery. This programme is fuelling the development of the Core Outcome Measures in Perioperative and Anaesthetic Care (COMPAC) work-stream, which is part of the wider Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials initiative.

We warmly invite offers of collaboration or suggestions for future directions.