Outcomes management: from theory to practice.

Providers and consumers currently are challenged to move the payer-driven health care system toward a patient-driven model. Described as disease management, this system would be based on prevention and the natural course of disease, providing care across the continuum. Creating the new system will demand the measurement and management of health outcomes to facilitate practice delivery within a scientific framework. Outcomes management provides this framework, enabling the development of best clinical practices, informed consumer decision making, prediction of resource consumption, identification of consumer expectations, and reduction of financial risk.