Productivity research and healthcare delivery innovation.

If a healthcare delivery system is to achieve quality and efficiency, participants must be able to measure quality and efficiency. Yet no healthcare system in the world - and certainly not the current US system, our main focus - measures, reports and acts on such a measure of productivity. This article describes the conventional methodology for measuring healthcare productivity and the more recent focus on episodes of illness and priority conditions. Specific clinical examples of productivity improvement and the many uses of such research - for private industry as well as public policy - illustrate why productivity research could be considered the 'genome' of healthcare delivery innovation.