Surrogate measure Health Dictionary

An instrument that estimates the extent to which a health care provider delivers clinical services that are appropriate for each patient’s condition; provides them safely, competently and in an appropriate time-frame; and achieves desired outcomes in terms of those aspects of patient health and patient satisfaction that can be affected by clinical services.... clinical performance measure

Individual outcome measure that extends beyond traditional measures of mortality and morbidity to include such dimensions as physiology, function, social activity, cognition, emotion, sleep and rest, energy and vitality, health perception and general life satisfaction (some of these are also known as health status, functional status or quality-of-life measures).... health-related quality-of-life (hrql) measure

The procedure of applying a standard scale to a variable or to a set of values.... measurement

The complete range of possible values for a measurement (e.g. the set of possible responses to a question, the physically possible range for a set of body weights). Measurement scales are sometimes classified into five major types, according to the quantitative character of the scale: dichotomous scale: One that arranges items into either of two mutually exclusive categories. nominal scale: Classification into unordered qualitative categories, such as race, religion, and country of birth, as measurements of individual attributes are purely nominal scales, as there is no inherent order to their categories. ordinal scale: Classification into ordered qualitative categories, such as social class, where the values have a distinct order, but their categories are qualitative in that there is no natural (numerical) distance between their possible values. interval scale: An (equal) interval involving assignment of values with a natural distance between them, so that a particular distance (interval) between two values in one region of the scale meaningfully represents the same distance between two values in another region of the scale. An example is date of birth. ratio scale: A ratio is an interval scale with a true zero point, so that ratios between values are meaningfully defined. Examples are weight, height, blood count and income, as in each case it is meaningful to speak of one value as being so many times greater or less than another.... measurement scale

See APPENDIX 6: MEASUREMENTS IN MEDICINE.... measures

System used to track treatment or care and responses. The methods for measuring outcomes are quite varied among providers. Much disagreement exists regarding the best practice or tools to utilize to measure outcomes.... outcome measurement

Methods or instruments to estimate or monitor the extent to which the actions of an individual practitioner or whole programme conform to practice standards of quality or allow comparisons between services.... performance measure or indicator

Measures which describe in words or diagrams rather than using numbers.... qualitative measures

Measures using numbers to attempt to measure what has occurred.... quantitative measures

A term applied in medicine to a substance used as a substitute for another. The term is also applied to a woman who agrees to become pregnant and give birth to a child on the understanding that she will give up the child to the parents who have contracted with her for the surrogacy arrangement. When in vitro fertilisation (IVF – see under ASSISTED CONCEPTION) proved successful, it became possible to transfer a fertilised egg to a ‘uterus of choice’. Arti?cial insemination of the potential surrogate mother using sperm from the putative ‘father’ is also practised. Surrogacy has thrown up a host of ethical and legal problems which have yet to be satisfactorily resolved.... surrogate

It is more than a hundred years since the metric system was legalised in Britain, but it was not until 1969 that it became illegal to use any system of weights and measures other than the metric system for dispensing prescriptions.

A rationalisation of the metric system is now used, known as the International System of Units (SI – see APPENDIX 6: MEASUREMENTS IN MEDICINE).... weights and measures

(FIM) a table recommended by the WHO for assessing the degree of whole-person disability, being particularly useful for judging the extent of recovery from serious injury. It has five grades, ranging from 0 (fully independent) to 4 (completely dependent).... functional independence measure

a mainly US term for therapies instituted to save a patient’s life when all other options have failed. These may have serious or even fatal side-effects, but the risk is considered worth taking since the patient will surely otherwise die. Many people specify ‘no heroic measures’ in their *advance directive (‘living will’).... heroic measures

see proxy decision.... surrogate decision

a woman who becomes pregnant (by artificial insemination or embryo insertion) following an arrangement made with another party (usually a couple unable themselves to have children) in which she agrees to give the child she carries to that party when it is born. Surrogacy arrangements are made on the understanding that no payment is involved between either parties although reasonable expenses can be paid. See also section 30 order.

Details of surrogacy at the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority website... surrogate mother