Writing at the Times' Economix blog, Uwe Reinhardt shares some thoughts on how those looking to find better ways to measure quality in health care environments should take heart from the pioneers of aviation who fought against the preconceptions of humans taking to the air. One thing that might help: Have insurers publicly share their metrics and the weights they give them.

A wise thing to say in casual conversation is that “outcome” is all that matters in measuring the quality of health care. Presumably, “outcome” includes clinical outcome and patient satisfaction. Experts in quality measurement agree in principle. In practice, however, they warn that “outcome” is a complex metric.