The US system of primary care is rapidly transforming. While quality measures are necessary to achieve national health objectives, those in use are often costly, misaligned, and provide limited return.
Starfield Summits convene diverse stakeholders to enable discussions both for public consumption and for the advancement of primary care research, policy, and action.
Starfield III: Meaningful Measures for Primary Care, was held October 4-6, 2017 in Washington, DC.
Funded by: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (1R13HS025312-01), the American Board of Family Medicine Foundation, Family Medicine for America’s Health, the North American Primary Care Research Group, and Virginia Commonwealth University.
Purpose
Starfield III was a working conference that brought together a small yet powerful collective of experts and stakeholders.
Continued widespread dissatisfaction with measures is evidence of continued need for solution. Starfield III was intended to:
Begin/evolve a set of key criteria to inform measure development
Revise/refine a framework for primary care measures based on what matters most
Consider/advance a set of essential primary care measures
Approach
Seventy national and international leaders participated in a 2½ day conference. Prior to the Summit, participants read a series of conference briefs and publications to ensure knowledge held in common.
Participants were organized into ten working groups and held a series of focused discussions on previously shared quality areas and guidance for primary care measure development. The work of each group and the large group discussions were digitally recorded.
Why it Matters
We require new thinking and a unified vision across primary care settings and stakeholders. Development of meaningful measures will need to address the difference between what we know how to measure and what we need most to understand. Starfield III identified new ways of thinking, areas of critical measurement gaps, and prioritized avenues for solution.