Why measure?

Measuring involves establishing what something is or achieves, such as its properties, qualities, values or effects.

Measurement can be part of an intervention to support self-management for an individual or population group, for example:

• to facilitate shared agenda setting and person-led goal setting
• to assess the self-management support needs, knowledge and confidence of people with long-term conditions and their carers

Measurement can also help evaluate interventions to support self-management, for example:

• to identify whether self-management activities are improving outcomes
• to test different approaches to see which have the greatest impact and should be prioritised/expanded, and which should perhaps be decommissioned.

Measuring is not about collecting information for the sake of reporting. It is about tracking progress or using information to inform decisions. It may help you determine how best to help an individual through tailoring support based on their needs and goals, or to identify how self-management initiatives or services can be improved to meet more people’s needs.

There are many survey tools available for use in supported self-management. This table provides details of just some of them. A number of these measures are free to use.

Tools to implement measuring

Measuring supported self-management – Five steps to help teams choose approaches: The guide describes steps for planning how to use measurement within supported self-management, based on evidence and good practice. The steps will help you decide how to collect the information that is right for you and the populations you serve. The guide does not prescribe the ‘best’ approaches or measurement tools, as the most useful approach will depend on what you want to know and why. There are examples throughout the guide describing how some teams have used measurement within their work. The guide also contains information about a range of surveys and scales that can be useful.

Suppliers available through the Health Systems Support Framework

In Spring 2021, the Supported Self – Management team undertook a procurement exercise on behalf of the NHS through the Health Systems Support Framework.

Through initial procurement work being undertaken nationally, the Framework makes it easier and simpler for local NHS organisations to identify and commission suppliers.  All bids are assessed both for the quality and relevance of the product and the standing of the supplying organisation.

In this case, the Supported Self-Management team were looking for suppliers:

• Of measures which assist and enhance supported self-management interventions or that can be used to assess and compare the impact of self-management interventions.
• Capable of providing expertise, advice, support and training in the use of measurement in supported self-management.

We have written a buyers’ guide to help organisations use the Framework for the above. To view a copy of the guide please register for access to the Framework workspace:

Suppliers of measures

The following suppliers have been awarded a place on the Framework:

• DNA Insight Ltd
• Insignia Health
• Meaningful Measures Ltd
• Patients Know best
• R-Outcomes Ltd

Further details about each supplier are below.

DNA Insight Ltd: DNA Insight is a specialist healthcare training consultancy dedicated to supporting primary care and the community and voluntary sector throughout the UK in the successful implementation of the NHS Long Term Plan.

DNA Insight specialise in providing consultancy, training and long-term support to Integrated Care Systems, Clinical Commissioning Groups, primary care networks, health boards and practices in social prescribing, motivational interviewing, health coaching, active signposting and care navigation, and correspondence management and workflow optimisation. They offer the Health and Wellbeing Prism – a multi-dimensional evaluation and patient management tool.

Insignia Health: Insignia Health empowers healthcare organisations and health professionals around the world to assess patient activation and develop strategies for efficient application of healthcare resources. As activation increases and individuals become better managers of their health, utilisation costs decline, and patient satisfaction improves.  Insignia Health offers the patient activation measure (PAM).

Meaningful Measures Ltd: Meaningful Measures provides innovative person-centred evaluation, audit and research solutions. Their mission is to enable people’s own voices to shape the understanding and improvement of health and wellbeing services.

Meaningful Measures operates a licensing process for Measure Yourself Concerns and Wellbeing (MYCaW) and Measure Yourself Medical Outcome Profile (MYMOP).

Patients Know Best (PKB): PKB is a social enterprise and technology platform, designed to bring together patient data from health and social care providers and the patient’s own data, into one secure personal health record.

A digital platform is used to connect systems across primary, acute, community, mental health and social care, providing one consolidated citizen-owned record. Patients can login into the platform to access everything from appointment letters and test results, to their multi-disciplinary care plans.  To empower patients to play an active role in their health and wellbeing, they can also use specially designed tools to monitor and track their health condition.

R-Outcomes Ltd: R-Outcomes’ mission is to help patients, clinicians and managers to quantify the things that really matter most to them.

R-Outcomes provides a variety of tools including patient – reported outcome measures (PROMs), patient – reported experience measures (PREMs), software and support, which help capture and report health status, wellbeing, health confidence, patient experience and innovation capabilities.

R-Outcomes provides quick, easy-to-use PROMs, PREMs, data collection and analytic services. The tools measure ‘what matters’ to patients, carers and staff to help you improve care.

Expertise, advice, support and training in the use of measurement in supported self–management

The following suppliers have been awarded a place on the Framework:

• Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
• Market & Opinion Research International Limited (trading as Ipsos MORI)
• Meaningful Measures Ltd (see above details for supplier description)
• MyWay Digital Health
• Picker Institute Europe
• R-Outcomes Ltd (see above details for supplier description)

Further details about each supplier are below.

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust: Guy’s and St Thomas’ (GST) Consulting offer a wide range of healthcare consultancy services to both UK and International clients.

GST methodology is tailored to the clients’ specific requirements and through a collaborative approach they work with clients to develop solutions, build skills and transfer knowledge.

Market and Opinion Research International Ltd: Ipsos MORI is a leading provider of social research and evaluation to government departments and arms-length bodies. Ipsos MORI brings together research, implementation, methodological, and subject-matter experts from around the world, combining thematic and technical experts globally with local knowledge to deliver top-quality research.

Ipsos MORI believe clients need more than a data supplier, they need a partner who can produce accurate and relevant information and turn it into actionable truth.

MyWay digital Health: MyWay Digital Health is a purpose driven University of Dundee spin out company with a vision to improve the lives of people with diabetes (and other long-term conditions) globally through affordable data-driven solutions.

MyWay Digital Health are responsible for a number of national diabetes self-management platforms in the UK, delivering education to people living with diabetes and data-driven services directly to over 60,000 patients. MyWay Digital Health operate internationally supplying regional and large organisational digital solutions, and consultancy services around implementation and evaluation of diabetes self-management solutions and care pathways.

Picker: Picker is an international charity working across health and social care to improve the quality of care.

Pickers conduct research to understand individuals’ needs and their experience of care.  They use people’s experiences of healthcare to identify priorities in delivering the highest quality care and measure experiences to uncover incidences of excellent and poor healthcare delivery.