Longstanding debate about how to ensure and measure excellent healthcare abounds. Increasingly health professionals, insurers, researchers and, indeed, patients and families, are recognizing that health care is better when patients’ needs are placed at the center of the decision-making process. How can we capture patient voices in ways that can improve healthcare delivery, cost, and outcomes? How do we measure what matters to the person who becomes a patient when illness strikes?

Patient-centered measurement involves partnering with patients in a meaningful way to decide what we measure, how we measure it, and how we report and use the results of measurement. Principles for Making Health Care Measurement Patient-Centered offers a vision of measurement that is patient-driven, holistic, transparent, comprehensible and timely, and co-created with patients. These principles, and related examples, address a critical gap in measuring health care by placing patient preferences at the center.