SynthesisHealthcare policy = Politiques de sante2016
What's Measured Is Not Necessarily What Matters: A Cautionary Story from Public Health.
Synthesis in Healthcare policy = Politiques de sante, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effectiveness of capacity building interventions relevant to public health practice: a systematic review.BMC public health · 2018Pooled it
- Designing measurement systems for contemporary public health priorities.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2026Article
- Core outcomes for speech-language services in Ontario schools: a group concept mapping study and guiding framework.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Incentivizing performance in health care: a rapid review, typology and qualitative study of unintended consequences.BMC health services research · 2022Review
- High and Sustained Participation in a Multi-year Voluntary Performance Measurement Initiative Among Primary Care Teams.International journal of health policy and management · 2022Observational
- Association of Primary Care Physician Compensation Incentives and Quality of Care in the United States, 2012-2016.Journal of general internal medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
A systematic review of the introduction and use of outcome-based performance management systems for public health organizations found differences between their use as a management system (which requires rigorous definition and measurement to allow comparison across organizational units) versus for improvement (which may require more flexibility). What is included in performance measurement/management systems is influenced by ease of measurement, data quality, ability of organization to control outcomes, ability to measure success in terms of doing things (rather than preventing things) and what is already happening. To the extent that most providers wish to do a good job, the availability of good data to enable benchmarking and improvement is an important step forward. However, to the extent that the health of a population is dependent on multiple factors, many beyond the mandate of the health system, too extensive a reliance on performance measurement may risk unintended consequences of marginalizing critical activities.
Indexed as
Identifiers
28032824PMC5221711What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.