Publications

The topics below group and provide links to publications authored by Mayo Clinic experts in the areas of patient experience, quality, value and other topics relevant to the science of health care delivery.

The links return citations from PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine. PubMed comprises references and abstracts from MEDLINE, life science journals and online books.

Patient experience

Delivery of health care
The concept concerned with all aspects of providing and distributing health services to a patient population — whether across a practice, in nontraditional clinical settings such as school or work, in a community, or across communities.
Health disparities among minority and vulnerable populations
Preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations.
Health knowledge, attitudes and practice
Knowledge, attitudes and associated behaviors that pertain to health-related topics such as pathologic processes or diseases, their prevention, and their treatment.
Health services accessibility
The degree to which individuals are inhibited or facilitated in their ability to gain entry to and receive care and services from the health care system. Factors influencing this ability include geographic, architectural, transportation and financial considerations, among others.
Patient acceptance of health care
The seeking and acceptance by patients of health services.
Patient-centered care
Design of patient care in which institutional resources and personnel are organized around patients rather than around specialized departments.
Patient satisfaction
The degree to which the individual regards the health care service or product, or the manner in which it is delivered by the provider, as useful, effective or beneficial.
Physician-patient relations
The interactions between physician and patient.

Quality

Health care quality, access and evaluation
The concept concerned with all aspects of the quality, accessibility and appraisal of health care and health care delivery.
Quality assurance — health care
Activities and programs intended to assure or improve the quality of care in either a defined medical setting or a program. The concept includes the assessment or evaluation of the quality of care, identification of problems or shortcomings in the delivery of care, designing activities to overcome these deficiencies, and follow-up monitoring to ensure effectiveness of corrective steps.
Quality improvement
The attainment — or process of attaining — a new level of performance or quality.
Quality indicators — health care
Norms, criteria, standards, and other direct qualitative and quantitative measures used in determining the quality of health care.
Quality of health care
The levels of excellence that characterize the health service or health care provided based on accepted standards of quality.

Several subcategories of quality within health care are of particular interest and linked here separately for ease of review:

Surgical outcomes research
Building evidence to inform the practice of surgery and improve its safety, efficiency and quality as well as the experiences of patients undergoing surgery.

Value

Evidence-based medicine
An approach of practicing medicine with the goal to improve and evaluate patient care. It requires the judicious integration of best research evidence with the patient's values to make decisions about medical care. This method is to help physicians make proper diagnoses, devise the best testing plans, and choose the best treatments and methods of disease prevention, as well as develop guidelines for large groups of patients with the same disease.
Health care costs
The actual costs of providing services related to the delivery of health care, including the costs of procedures, therapies and medications. It is differentiated from health expenditures, which refers to the amount of money paid for the services, and from fees, which refers to the amount charged, regardless of cost.
Health care economics and organizations
The economic aspects of health care, health care planning and health care delivery. It includes government agencies and organizations in the private sector.
Organizational efficiency
The capacity of an organization, institution or business to produce desired results with a minimum expenditure of energy, time, money, personnel, material, and so on.
Outcome and process assessment in health care
Evaluation procedures that focus on both the outcome or status (outcomes assessment) of the patient at the end of an episode of care, such as presence of symptoms, level of activity and mortality, and the process (assessment, process) — what is done for the patient diagnostically and therapeutically.
Primary health care
Care that provides integrated, accessible health care services by clinicians who are accountable for addressing a large majority of personal health care needs, developing a sustained partnership with patients, and practicing in the context of family and community.

Science of health care delivery

Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science which attempts to emulate human problem-solving skills. Also called cognitive computing, AI includes concepts such as machine learning — including deep learning and natural language processing, which are especially relevant to health care.
Clinical decision support systems
Computer-based programs that analyze data within a patient's electronic health record, providing prompts or reminders to assist health care providers in implementing individualized, evidence-based care.
Clinical informatics
Leveraging information technology to improve health and health care delivery; structuring and analyzing data for optimal retrieval and application.
Community health services
Organizations and services that increase access to primary care and reduce barriers to access, including cost, insurance or resident status, rurality, and language.
Continuity of patient care
Health care provided on a continuing basis from the initial contact, following the patient through all phases of medical care.
Health care evaluation mechanisms
Health care evaluation is the critical assessment, through rigorous processes, of an aspect of health care to assess whether it fulfills its objectives. Within health care, one can assess effectiveness, efficiency, acceptability of the experience and equity.
Health services research
The integration of epidemiologic, sociological, economic and other analytic sciences in the study of health services. Health services research is usually concerned with relationships between need, demand, supply, use and outcome of health services. The aim of the research is evaluation, particularly in terms of structure, process, output and outcome.
Health status indicators
The measurement of the health status for a given population using a variety of indexes, including morbidity, mortality and available health resources.
Knowledge and information management
Capturing, cataloging and distributing knowledge and information. Leveraging data effectively to generate new knowledge, including optimizing integration into or with the electronic medical record.
Natural language processing
A component of artificial intelligence, natural language processing allows researchers to analyze and extract meaningful data from narrative text or other unstructured data fields within the electronic health record.
Patient care management
The concept concerned with all aspects of providing and distributing health services to a patient population.
Rochester Epidemiology Project
The Rochester Epidemiology Project (REP) is a unique population health resource and long-established collaborative initiative originating in Olmsted County, Minnesota. It now includes linked medical record data from patients across 27 counties in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Telemedicine
Delivery of health services via remote telecommunications. This includes interactive consultative and diagnostic services.
Workload
Workload is the demand placed on individuals for their physical capabilities and mental resources. This area of study contributes to knowledge about workplace safety, ergonomics, burnout, service volume and other health care workload topics.