PaRIS (Patient-Reported Indicator Surveys) Coordination Analysis

PaRIS (Patient-Reported Indicator Surveys) is an OECD initiative to develop, standardise and implement internationally comparable patient-reported outcome (PROM) and experience (PREM) indicators in primary and ambulatory care. In its flagship survey, PaRIS collected data from over 100,000 patients across 1,800 GP practices in 20 countries, capturing rich information on what healthcare means from patients’ perspectives. Our team is partnering with the OECD to conduct a secondary analysis, focusing specifically on the relationship between continuity of care, provider typology, and patient-reported outcomes and experiences.

The Problem

Traditional health system performance metrics tend to emphasise inputs, processes and disease-centred indicators—less so what patients themselves experience or how that translates into outcomes. Without systematic, multi-country evidence linking structural features of primary care (such as continuity, provider mix) to what patients report, health systems lack guidance on how to organise care in person-centred ways. Furthermore, there is a risk that different models of care (e.g. fragmented/episodic vs longitudinal) may diverge significantly in their impact on outcomes people care about, even when traditional metrics look similar.

Approach

We will use the PaRIS dataset to model associations between continuity of care and provider type with patient-reported outcomes (health status, quality of life) and experiences (access, coordination, trust). We will adjust for confounders, explore effect heterogeneity across settings, and carry out sensitivity analyses.

Impact

This analysis aims to fill a critical evidence gap: understanding whether and how organisational features of primary care systems translate into better outcomes as reported by patients themselves. The results can inform policy levers (e.g. incentivising continuity, reconfiguring teams) in health systems aiming for more people-centred care. Over time, embedding patient-reported indicators into performance frameworks can shift health systems’ accountability toward what matters to people, not just what is easy to measure.