Outcomes and Value in Spine Surgery

Health care costs are on an unsustainable upward trajectory and spine disorders are one of the most costly disease states worldwide. Value-based care is being implemented across all medical specialties. However, the true meaning of value and how to accurately and precisely measure value poses a significant challenge. The keys to identifying and optimizing value in spine care lies at the individual patient level. Analyzing drivers of cost from all perspectives and identifying patient factors, surgeon factors, and others that lead to increased cost and cost variation is critical to make improvements in value. Equally important, is the ability to accurately measure patient outcomes. Innovative methods are being developed for measuring patient outcomes and developing evidence to guide clinical decision-making. It can no longer be acceptable to only look at population based outcomes when evaluating the value of a spine intervention, rather the factors that drive variation in outcomes in the outliers must be identified and modified. Understanding what drives cost in spine surgery, the ability to accurately measure outcomes following spine intervention, and identifying factors that drive variation in cost and outcomes is critical to improving the value of health care. These concepts are essential in order to strive toward individualized care, which will not only lead to improved benefit to the patient, but also benefit to the surgeon, the hospital, the payer, and society as a whole.