A comprehensive new set of health metrics is now widely available for use by healthcare delivery organizations and their funders and investors. The product of a working partnership between the Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI), and the IRIS initiative of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), the metrics provide both investors and investees with standardized definitions for common measures of performance.
The release of these metrics comes at a time when world’s poor disproportionately lack access to affordable quality health care and roughly 100 million people every year enter poverty due to out-of-pocket healthcare costs. To address this challenge, private organizations are developing innovative solutions to improve health care options for low-income populations. Impact investors, donors, and domestic governments are increasingly investing in these enterprises to help achieve their goals related to improving global health.
The new metrics cover three core performance dimensions: who is served, what is delivered, and how it is delivered. Specifically, the metrics track a number of indicators including the demographic, income level of clients, types of diseases or conditions addressed, and quality assurance mechanisms, such as the percentage of patients who completed the full course of a recommended treatment. These indicators can help healthcare organizations provide financing for clients and investors understand the range of quality processes.
The Stanford Social Innovation Review published a blog co-authored by R4D Program Officer Christina Synowiec, who supported R4D and CHMI’s work on the project. Discussing the benefits of the health metrics for impact investors and healthcare organizations, the blog cites a recent survey of impact investors indicating that 98% of respondents think that impact measurement is important to the development of the industry.
Further reinforcing the value of the metrics to the impact investing community, Christine Kapkusum, Manager of East Africa Health Portfolio at the Acumen Fund said, ” With the health metrics developed by IRIS and CHMI, we can better evaluate the impact of our health investments as well as the collective impact of the broader healthcare market delivering much-needed products and services to the poor.”
Visit the CHMI’s performance measurement page for the following information:
- An overview of the background and rationale for the metrics,
- A working paper which outlines the IRIS working group’s process to create the metrics
- A full catalog of metrics.
