Outcome Measurement: Sharing Experiences in Australia

Abstract

There is growing attention to evidence-based medicine both in informing medical education and in guiding clinical practice. The result is increasing emphasis on evaluating treatment efficacy, the structure of health care delivery, the allocation of the health dollar and the application of information technology to these tasks. Implications are emerging for psychiatric care in Australia from everyday clinical practices to the political level. Collective experience in this area, as discussed at a conference forum in Sydney [1], is summarized in this paper. This information is presented to stimulate thought, foster comparisons and encourage a synthesis of clinical, administrative and political directions in this field.