Explore science by method, field &amp; evidence.

Balanced Scorecard in Healthcare

The Balanced Scorecard is a strategic performance management framework that translates an organization's mission and strategy into a comprehensive set of performance measures across four perspectives: financial, customer, internal processes, and learning and growth. Developed by Kaplan and Norton in 1992 for general bu

3 sources1992

Budget Impact Analysis

Budget impact analysis estimates the financial consequences (net costs or savings) of implementing a new health technology in a specific healthcare system or population over a short time horizon (typically 1–5 years). Distinct from cost-effectiveness analysis (which compares health outcomes per dollar), BIA answers a b

3 sources2005

Clinical Audit

Clinical audit is a systematic, cyclical process that measures the quality of clinical care against evidence-based standards and benchmarks, identifies gaps, and implements improvements to bring practice into alignment with current best evidence. Originating in the UK NHS, clinical audit is now a fundamental quality as

3 sources1989

Clinical Handover Quality Scale

The Clinical Handover Quality Scale (CHQS) is a comprehensive framework and measurement tool for assessing the quality of clinical handovers—the critical communication process by which responsibility for a patient's care is transferred from one provider or team to another. Handovers occur multiple times daily in health

3 sources2008

strategic management

Configurational Strategy Analysis (fsQCA)

Configurational strategy analysis applies fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to strategy questions, asking not which single variable drives an outcome but which combinations of conditions together produce it. The method rests on Charles Ragin's set-theoretic framework, fully developed in his 2008 book R

2 sources2008

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Cost-benefit analysis compares the total monetary value of benefits produced by a program against its total monetary costs, reporting net present value (NPV) or benefit-cost ratio (BCR). Rooted in welfare economics and used extensively in public policy (transportation, environmental, education, health), CBA answers the

3 sources1970

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

Cost-effectiveness analysis compares the incremental cost per unit of health benefit gained by one intervention relative to a comparator (standard care or best alternative). Developed rigorously in the 1980s by Drummond, Stoddart, and colleagues, CEA is now the standard framework for technology appraisal globally. NICE

3 sources1984

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis in HTA

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) is an economic evaluation method that compares the cost and health benefits of alternative treatments to determine whether an intervention provides good value for money. Within Health Technology Assessment, CEA is the primary tool for recommending reimbursement and coverage decisions.

3 sources1996

Decision Analytic Modeling

Decision analytic modeling is a systematic framework for comparing health interventions by integrating evidence on probabilities, outcomes, costs, and patient preferences into a quantitative model. Developed by Pauker and Kassirer in 1975, decision analysis structures clinical uncertainty and economic trade-offs, enabl

3 sources1975

Disability-Adjusted Life Year

A DALY quantifies disease burden as the sum of years of life lost to premature death and years lived with disability. Developed by the World Health Organization and World Bank in 1990 as part of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, DALYs enable epidemiologists and public health planners to compare disease burden a

strategic management

Event Study Methodology

Event study methodology measures the stock-market reaction to a discrete corporate event by isolating the portion of a firm's return that cannot be explained by normal market movements. Under semi-strong market efficiency, new information about an acquisition, earnings announcement, alliance, CEO change, or regulatory

2 sources1997

HCAHPS Hospital Consumer Assessment Survey

The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) is a 27-item, CMS-mandated patient experience survey administered to a random sample of hospital inpatients after discharge. Launched in 2006 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality,

3 sources2006

Health Technology Assessment

Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is a structured, multidisciplinary approach to evaluating the clinical, economic, and societal effects of healthcare technologies (devices, drugs, procedures, systems). HTA synthesizes evidence from clinical trials, observational studies, and economic analyses to support decision-make

3 sources1980

Healthcare Team Vitality Instrument

The Healthcare Team Vitality Instrument (HTVI) is a brief, 5-item survey designed to measure healthcare team cohesion, communication quality, and shared purpose—dimensions of team "vitality" that are associated with effective teamwork and patient safety. Developed by Metersky and colleagues and validated in intensive c

3 sources2015

Hospital Bed Occupancy Model

Hospital bed occupancy models forecast the number of occupied beds at future times by analyzing admission patterns, length of stay distributions, and discharge dynamics. These models support tactical decisions about staffing, supply chain management, and strategic decisions about capacity expansion.

3 sources2000

Hospital Readmission Prediction Model

Hospital readmission prediction models use statistical and machine learning techniques to identify patients at high risk of returning to the hospital shortly after discharge. These models guide targeted discharge planning and follow-up to improve outcomes and reduce costs.

3 sources1998

Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture

The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPS) is a 42-item standardized instrument developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to measure patient safety culture in hospital settings. First released in 2004 and revised in 2018, the HSOPS assesses 12 composite dimensions of safety culture a

3 sources2004

Instrumental Variables in Health Research

Instrumental variables (IV) is an econometric method to estimate causal effects when treatment or exposure is not randomly assigned and confounding is severe or unmeasured. IV relies on a third variable (instrument) that influences treatment but does not directly affect the outcome, allowing researchers to isolate the

Lean Healthcare

Lean is a management philosophy that emerged from the Toyota Production System, focused on maximizing patient value while minimizing waste. Applied to healthcare, Lean uses systematic methods to identify and eliminate non-value-added activities, reduce wait times, and improve the quality of patient care.

3 sources1988

Markov Model in Health Economics

A Markov model is a decision-analytic tool that simulates disease progression through defined health states over time, calculating cumulative costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) to enable cost-effectiveness analysis. Developed by Beck and Pauker in 1983, Markov models are now the standard framework for projec

3 sources1983

marketing science

Multi-Touch Media Attribution

Multi-touch media attribution distributes credit for a conversion across the sequence of marketing touchpoints a customer encountered, replacing crude heuristics like 'last click gets everything' with models that respect the whole journey. Two principled approaches dominate: graph-based Markov-chain models, advanced by

2 sources2016

Patient Flow Simulation

Discrete Event Simulation (DES) is a computational technique that models the movement of patients through healthcare facilities by simulating individual patient journeys and interactions with resources (staff, beds, equipment). DES allows realistic representation of complex, stochastic healthcare processes and supports

Patient Reported Experience Measure Framework

The Patient Reported Experience Measure (PREM) framework is a methodological approach for systematically collecting, analyzing, and acting on patient feedback about healthcare experiences. Unlike HCAHPS, which is a specific, standardized survey, PREM is a flexible framework that can be adapted to different care setting

3 sources2015

Patient Safety Climate in Healthcare Organizations

The Patient Safety Climate Scale (PSCS) is a focused, brief assessment tool designed to measure staff perceptions of the safety climate within a specific healthcare unit or department. Unlike broader safety culture instruments, the PSCS concentrates on the immediate work environment—how safety is prioritized at the tea

3 sources2005

Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index

The Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI) is a 31-item instrument designed to measure nurses' perceptions of their practice environment, particularly factors related to autonomy, control over practice, and organizational support. Developed by Lake in 2002 and based on foundational work by Krame

3 sources2002

organizational behavior

Psychometric Meta-Analysis

Psychometric meta-analysis is the Hunter-Schmidt approach to cumulating research findings while correcting for the statistical artifacts that distort individual studies. Frank Schmidt and John Hunter developed it to solve the problem of validity generalization: across many studies the observed validity of a selection t

2 sources1977

Quality-Adjusted Life Year

A QALY measures health benefit as utility weight (0 = death, 1 = perfect health) multiplied by time lived. Developed by Alan Williams in 1985, QALYs enable comparison of disparate health interventions on a common metric. Used globally by health technology assessment bodies—NICE (UK), HAS (France), CADTH (Canada), WHO—t

3 sources1985

Safety Attitudes Questionnaire

The Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) is a 60-item self-report instrument developed by Sexton and colleagues in the early 2000s to measure organizational safety culture in healthcare settings. Adapted from crew resource management research in aviation, the SAQ assesses clinician and non-clinician perceptions of safe

2 sources2000

Staffing Ratio Analysis

Staffing Ratio Analysis is a systematic method for determining appropriate healthcare worker levels (nurses, physicians, technicians) based on patient volume, acuity, and task requirements. Research shows that staffing levels directly impact patient safety, quality, and staff burnout; systematic analysis supports evide

TeamSTEPPS Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire

The TeamSTEPPS Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire (T-TPQ) is a 35-item self-report instrument designed to measure team members' perceptions of teamwork and communication in clinical units. Developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Department of Defense, the T-TPQ was created specifically to ev

3 sources2008

marketing science

Uplift Modeling

Uplift modeling targets the people a marketing action actually changes, not the people most likely to buy anyway. Where a conventional response model predicts the probability of purchase, an uplift model predicts the difference a treatment makes — the incremental effect of, say, sending a coupon — and uses it to find '

2 sources2011