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Center for Health Measurement (CHM) in Research

Improving Care and Quality of Life by Assessing Perspectives of Patients, Caregivers, and Clinicians

The Department of Population Health Science’s Center for Health Measurement engages patients and caregivers, learns about their preferences and experiences, and works with clinical partners to improve health outcomes. Our multi-disciplinary research teams conduct innovative patient-centered outcomes research to bring the voices of the patients and caregivers more directly into care planning, treatment decisions, and health policy.

Our research teams focus on:

  • Identifying Outcomes that Matter to Stakeholders – engaging patients, patient advocates, caregivers, providers, payers, and regulators to determine the set of outcome measures that will best answer questions of interest.
  • Developing Clinical Outcomes Assessments – using mixed methods to design and evaluate measures of patient-reported outcomes (PROs), clinician-reported outcomes (ClinROs), performance outcomes (PerfOs), and observer-reported outcomes (ObsROs) for use in clinical research and healthcare delivery settings.
  • Assessing Patient and Caregiver Preferences - designing and applying stated-preference methods to capture patients’ and caregivers’ concerns, values, and preferences in regulatory, coverage, and treatment decisions.
  • Improving Methods for Developing and Evaluating Health Measures – conducting qualitative and quantitative methodological work that leads to improvements in the way health measurement research is conducted.

We accomplish these objectives using a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods, including:

  • In-Depth Interviews
  • Cognitive Pretesting
  • Psychometrics
  • Latent Variable Modeling
  • Quantitative Preference Elicitation Methods

Our research is conducted with patients across the lifespan from pediatric to geriatric and involves many disease areas. Our measures have been used in clinical trials and in clinical care, as well as for population surveillance and quality improvement initiatives. Our growing Center continues to develop partnerships with patients, caregivers, clinicians, and researchers in a wide range of disciplines, as well as across academia, industry, and government.

Outcome Measures

Read more about the Center for Health Measurement's Observer-Reported Communication Ability (ORCA) Measure.

Center for Health Measurement PhD-Level Training in the Department of Population Health Sciences

Strengthen Your Research Skills and Generate Real-World Solutions

We’re developing collaborative research leaders who use the patients’ and caregivers’ voices to make clinical research, healthcare delivery, and policy decisions. As a Population Health Sciences PhD Student, you’ll master applied research methods applicable to health measurement, be mentored by expert Duke Faculty, and partner on innovative research with Duke School of Medicine clinicians.

Make Your Next Career Move

Currently, the healthcare industry is facing a growing need for health measurement researchers who can improve:

  • Clinical care
  • Treatment decisions
  • Drug and device development
  • Health policy

Training with our expert Duke Faculty and clinicians will help build your network for a job in either academia or industry.

Program Quick Facts:

PhD Students:

  • Receive full funding with tuition and stipend
  • Have access to a full slate of professional development resources that span your graduate education and build core competencies in six key areas,
  • Can create a community of multidisciplinary collaborators including clinicians and interventionalists.