Medical Care Supplement Presents Research and Strategies for Measuring the Well-Being of the Whole Person in Health Care
BACKGROUND:
A growing awareness that Veterans’ well-being depends on more than just the absence of disease or disease symptoms has led to a shift in VA from its traditional focus on improving disease outcomes to one in which the healthcare system aims to improve the health and well-being of Veterans, aligning these efforts with Veterans’ priorities, preferences, and perceptions of what matters most. This shift is reflected in the recent endorsement of a specific definition for well-being by the VA Deputy Secretary [1], as well as by a Department-level multi-stakeholder effort to design and implement a framework for measuring Veteran well-being across the entire agency.
To evaluate priorities for measuring well-being in healthcare, VA’s Health Systems Research (HSR) sponsored a State-of-the-Art (SOTA) conference in 2023 on “Measuring What Matters.” The conference was attended by VA and non-VA experts, Veteran Service Organizations, and Veterans, along with their caregivers and families. This Medical Care supplement reports on research surrounding well-being and Whole Person outcomes and measurement, as well as the SOTA’s discussion and conclusions about how, through measurement, healthcare systems can improve care delivery and patient health by addressing not only disease, but also what matters most to patients. Among the articles included in this special issue are the following:
- Vogt et al. describe the key directions identified during the SOTA for well-being measurement in clinical care, research, and population health.
- Langevin elaborates on the intersection of health and well-being.
- Britch et al. provide a Veteran perspective on the importance of attending to social well-being.
- Tsai et al. reflect on the movement toward Age Friendly Health Systems that take a life course perspective on Whole Person health and what constitutes successful aging.
- Galovski et al. discuss a study of a peer intervention for women Veterans and why belongingness is a key component of well-being.
- Etingen et al. describe the challenges of implementing a new measure of well-being in clinical care.
- Elbogen et al. discuss how financial well-being affects Veterans’ physical health.
Guest editors of this supplement were Barbara Bokhour, PhD, of HSR’s Center for Healthcare Optimization and Implementation Research (CHOIR), Benjamin Kligler, MD, MPH, Executive Director, VA Office of Patient Centered Care & Cultural Transformation, and Dawne Vogt, PhD, of VA’s Women’s Health Sciences Division of the National Center for PTSD and HSR’s CHOIR.
[1] “Well-being reflects the extent to which all Veterans are thriving in their daily lives. This includes experiencing good living conditions, as well as endorsing positive emotions and judgments regarding both one’s overall life circumstances (happiness, overall satisfaction, sense of purpose in life) and key domains that are important to the individual (e.g., health, social, financial, vocational, spiritual domains).”
Measuring What Matters Most: Considering the Well-Being of the Whole Person in Health Care. Medical Care. December 2024;62(12).
