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Methodology: James Peter Meza and Gail F. Fahoome The Development of an Instrument for Measuring Healing Ann Fam Med 2008; 6: 355-360 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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Electronic letters published:

Healing as an Outcome

John G. Scott   (18 July 2008)

Healing as an Outcome 18 July 2008
John G. Scott, New Brunswick, NJ, USA Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Send response to journal: Re: Healing as an Outcome	The survey instrument developed by Meza and Fahoome is an appropriate methodological accompaniment to the two other studies on healing in this issue of the Annals. The attention paid to developing domains based on existing theoretical models is laudable, as is the rigorous psychometric analysis. Most of the existing medical literature pays far too much attention to intermediate outcomes that may not be important to patients. To date there has been no quantitative way to measure healing as an outcome, even though “continuous healing relationships” have been identified by the Institute of Medicine as essential to providing quality medical care.1 Meza and Fahoome, by providing an instrument to measure the trait of “being healed,” have made a major contribution to advancing further research into the phenomenon of healing. 1. Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century: Institute of Medicine, Committee on Quality of Health Care in America; 2001. Competing interests:   None declared