Leading Horses to Water: Lessons from a Decade of Helping Psychological Therapy Services Use Routine Outcome Measurement to Improve Practice.

We summarise the recent reflections of five thought leaders in the field of routine outcome measurement (ROM) for psychological therapy, and then add our own experience of introducing a national ROM system in the UK. We highlight, in particular, the post-implementation challenge of securing data of sufficient reliability to help inform service quality improvements. We ground our conclusions and recommendations in the rapidly evolving discipline of implementation science, and offer a best practice model for applying research recommendations in practice settings. In this context we portray ROM implementation as significant organizational change that benefits from rigorous process and clearly defined, well-communicated targets.