Gauging health by patients’ views

QUALITYMETRIC has developed an international reputation by designing surveys that can quickly guage a person's overall health,. the impact of a specific illness or the efficacy of a given treatment. Above, the company's Asthma Control Test. /
QUALITYMETRIC has developed an international reputation by designing surveys that can quickly guage a person's overall health,. the impact of a specific illness or the efficacy of a given treatment. Above, the company's Asthma Control Test. /

If you give a new drug to a patient with arthritis, how do you gauge its effectiveness? You can measure how far each finger stretches and bends, or how far the patient can lift her arm. You can do X-rays to see the exact level of swelling in the joints.
Or you can ask the patient: How well can you move your hands? Are there tasks that once hurt that are now comfortable again?
QualityMetric Inc. specializes in the latter – gauging health, quality of life and the impact on both from illnesses and treatments.
The company measures those things through patient surveys that can look at the big picture, all aspects of a person’s health, or at individual pieces, such as how asthma, arthritis, headaches or other issues are affecting the person’s life.
The surveys look simple – the Asthma Control Test, for example, is just five questions. But behind each question, said CEO and co-founder John E. Ware Jr., is a huge volume of medical research – plus an expert vetting process to ensure that with just a few questions, the surveys can get an accurate picture no matter how complex the issue.
“In one minute, we can ask enough questions to get answers that used to take 20 minutes,” Ware said. And with the interactive, Web-based versions of its surveys, QualityMetric can go even deeper, using the initial few answers to zero in on the patient’s main concerns.
“We developed the first of these dynamic assessments five or 10 years ago … and it has revolutionized patient- or consumer-based assessments,” said Ware. “So we now have more than a dozen federal grants to apply these methodologies to all the therapeutic areas.”
QualityMetric grew out of Ware’s interest in psychometrics, a type of research common in education and psychology that measures individuals’ attitudes and perceptions. He focused on health care in particular, where he saw a “huge appetite” for this kind of information.
“After 20 or 30 years of traditional academic research, it was very clear that we needed to figure out a business model for measuring the voice of the consumer in health care,” Ware said. “We had economic data and we had clinical data, but we didn’t really have consumer outcome data, and so we formed a new company to try to develop a sustainable business model for the tools that had worked successfully in research.”
Ware and company co-founder James E. Dewey assembled a small team that began developing surveys and the technology to collect responses, score each test and report the data.
Their core product is the SF-36 survey, which in 36 questions covers essential aspects of a person’s physical and mental health, vitality and quality of life. Then there are specialized surveys – the first widely used one focused on headaches – and online tests. Many of the surveys are now available in multiple languages, and some include children’s versions.
And as expected, the market embraced their work.
Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest nonprofit health plan, has used the SF-8, a short version of the SF-36, to assess its members’ health and the impact of its care management programs. Orthopedic surgeons at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., have used the SF-36 to determine which patients are best-suited for surgery.
And pharmaceutical companies have used QualityMetric surveys for multiple purposes, from gauging the impact of a drug on patients’ quality of life – developing a body of research so the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would allow it to be touted on the label – to educating consumers about depression, asthma, arthritis and other conditions.
The company also provides some of its surveys free of charge to educational and health care advocacy organizations, and directly to consumers on AmIHealthy.com.
Ware calls QualityMetric a global leader in its field, and more than 10,000 citations in peer-reviewed journals support that claim. But there are competitors. “This is a fast-moving field,” he said, “and if we didn’t move fast, we’d be left behind.”

As the company continues to grow – Ware expects to have 70 employees by the year’s end – it is also strengthening its partnerships with industry and researchers.

Ultimately, Ware said, he expects to merge with someone focused on economic and clinical data, so together they can provide a complete package of health care information.

But he’s also declined several offers. “We’re holding out for the perfect partner,” he said.

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Company profile: QualityMetric Inc.
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Developer of patient health status and outcomes surveys for health care providers, health plans, drugmakers, researchers, etc.
OWNERS: Majority employee-owned (including CEO John E. Ware Jr.), plus venture-capital investors Humana Inc. and Psilos Group Managers LLC
LOCATION: 640 George Washington Highway, Lincoln, and small office in Waltham, Mass.
EMPLOYEES: 60
YEAR FOUNDED: 1997
ANNUAL REVENUE: WND

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