Standard Approach to Measuring Depression Can Advance Quality of Care

Use of a standard approach for measuring depression in both clinical and research settings has the potential to significantly improve quality of care. In an AHRQ-sponsored study, funded by the Office of the Secretary Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund and published in Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers described a project to develop uniform measures that make it possible to link and compare data, enabling new depression research and quality improvement efforts. To identify standard measures, the researchers gathered inputs from organizations that collect depression data, conducted a literature review and convened a workgroup to narrow the list to 10 broadly relevant measures. Access the abstract of the study and a related AHRQ white paper, Standardized Library of Depression Outcome Measures.