Defining the Value of Spine Care to Society

Defining value in spine surgery increasingly considers the patient's perspective, a task that requires quantifying outcomes using validated, patient-derived outcome instruments. Both general and disease-specific instruments have been used to measure outcomes after spinal surgery. Some outcomes instruments can be used to derive a utility score, a metric that grades patient health along a continuous spectrum from 0 to 1. The change in utility score after a procedure and the procedure cost are used to determine the cost per change in utility, a measurement that forms the basis of cost-effectiveness analysis and can be compared between procedures.