The field of health care technology assessment focuses on the use of medical technologies--their impacts on safety, efficacy, and effectiveness; cost-effectiveness and cost benefit; quality; and their social, legal, and ethical implications. This wide-ranging monograph addresses some of the gaps in understanding health status and quality of life, such as the use of quality-of-life measures in technology assessment, organ transplantation, and pharmaceutical trials. One chapter provides basic references for the technical attributes of many established measures and some lesser known ones. The final chapter offers recommendations concerning the appropriate applications of these measures and highlights areas for cooperative research.

Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Council on Health Care Technology
• Methods Panel
• Preface
• 1. Conceptual Background and Issues in Quality of Life
  • Conceptual Background
  • Issues Relating to Selecting Health and Quality-of-Life Measures
  • References
• 2. The Use of Quality-of-Life Measures in Technology Assessment
  • Literature Reviews
  • The Value of Assessing Quality of Life as an Outcome
  • Diagnosis—an Open Problem
  • Roles of the Examples
  • Twelve Applications of Quality-of-Life Measures to Technology Assessment
  • References
• 3. Quality-of-Life Measures in Liver Transplantation
  • Quality-of-Life Measures
  • Conclusions
  • References
• 4. Quality-of-Life Measures and Methods Used to Study Antihypertensive Medications
• 5. The Use of Quality-of-Life Measures in the Private Sector
  • Method of Study
  • Results of the Quality-of-Life Survey
  • Conclusions
  • References
  • Selected Further Reading
• 6. Assessing Quality of Life: Measures and Utility
  • Issues in Selecting Quality-of-Life Measures
  • Strategies Used to Assess Instruments
  • A Review of Selected Measures for Assessing Quality of Life
  • A Review of Utility Assessments in Quality of Life
  • Three Sources of Descriptive Information for Quality-of-Life Measures
  • Ten Review Forms for Quality-of-Life Measures
  • References
• 7. Applications of Quality-of-Life Measures and Areas for Cooperative Research
• The Authors

This monograph was supported in part by a grant to the Council on Health Care Technology of the Institute of Medicine from the National Center for Health Services Research and Health Care Technology Assessment of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (grant no. HS 0552602). The opinions and conclusions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Academy of Sciences, or any of their constituent parts.

THE INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE was chartered in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to enlist distinguished members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. In this, the Institute acts under both the Academy's 1863 congressional charter responsibility to be an adviser to the federal government, and its own initiative in identifying issues of medical care, research, and education.

THE COUNCIL ON HEALTH CARE TECHNOLOGY was established in 1986 by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences as a public-private entity to address issues of health care technology and technology assessment. The council is committed to the well-being of patients as the fundamental purpose of technology assessment. In pursuing that goal, the council draws on the services of the nation's experts in medicine, health policy, science, engineering, and industry.