Consumer-driven health care: a path to achieving shared goals.

Consumers are the driving force for a transition to a best outcomes-driven health care system that values and rewards outreach, innovation, and the rapid translation of scientific advances into everyday practice. They are the engine for change that can drive outcomes improvement, encourage broader and more timely use of new knowledge, and demand mechanisms to evaluate and report the effects. Consumers alone are fueled by the passion and urgency that results from living with the effects of illness, or seeing those they care about suffer. This best outcomes-driven system will need to be defined by consumers, professionals, and scientific evidence. But to participate as effective change agents, consumers will need good information, decision-support tools, access to resources, and ongoing support from entities they trust. By putting the consumer in the center of a best outcomes-driven system, we can begin to achieve our shared goals: universal access to high-quality, affordable health care and the opportunity for everyone to achieve optimal health-related quality of life and function.