Use of 13 disease registries in 5 countries demonstrates the potential to use outcome data to improve health care's value.

As health care systems worldwide struggle with rising costs, a consensus is emerging to refocus reform efforts on value, as determined by the evaluation of patient outcomes relative to costs. One method of using outcome data to improve health care value is the disease registry. An international study of thirteen registries in five countries (Australia, Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States) suggests that by making outcome data transparent to both practitioners and the public, well-managed registries enable medical professionals to engage in continuous learning and to identify and share best clinical practices. The apparent result: improved health outcomes, often at lower cost. For example, we calculate that if the United States had a registry for hip replacement surgery comparable to one in Sweden that enabled reductions in the rates at which these surgeries are performed a second time to replace or repair hip prostheses, the United States would avoid $2 billion of an expected $24 billion in total costs for these surgeries in 2015.