The demand for and use of outcomes information.

As the focus of UK health care moves towards the achievement of health gain, information on health outcomes is required by health care commissioners and providers in order to bring about improved patient outcomes. The information required includes health care activity and population data, and textual and bibliographic information to identify published outcomes studies and current health outcomes activities. A survey of enquiries received by the UK Clearing House on Health Outcomes was undertaken to ascertain the nature and level of enquiries, and their geographical and organizational origins in the UK. The study cannot claim to be a comprehensive review of the demand for and use of health outcomes information. What it does illustrate is the still developmental stage of health outcomes activity in the UK. Providers are the major group of users of outcomes information. The potential impact of health outcomes information on health care commissioning has yet to be realized.