The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECDExternal), is an international organization that leads efforts essential to economic growth, health, global competitiveness, and good governance among countries. Created from the vision of the United States as part of the Marshall Plan and Bretton Woods agreements, OECD is a worldwide forum in which governments can work together to share and compare public policy experiences and seek solutions to common problems.

OECD Annual Health Data Request

Contact persons:

• Francis (Sam) Notzon, (301) 458–4402
• Juan R. Albertorio-Diaz, (301) 458–4634

The core mission of OECD is to devise, implement, and promote policies designed to improve the economic and social well-being of the world’s citizens. As part of this mission, the 34 member nations provide OECD with statistical data including information on selected health indicators. This collection of national health data and associated information is stored in the OECD Health Database and serves as the foundation for international health comparisons between the member countries’ health indicators. Since 1985, NCHS has provided OECD with data on selected health indicators for the United States. To carry out this work, the ISP staff serve as the focal point for receiving, reviewing, responding, and collaborating with NCHS staff to fulfill the annual OECD health data request.
OECD main pageExternal
OECD Health DatabaseExternal
OECD Health at a GlanceExternal

OECD Health Care Quality Indicator (HCQI) Project

Contact persons:

• Francis (Sam) Notzon, (301) 458-4402
• Irma Arispe, (301) 458-4652

The OECD Health Care Quality Indicator (HCQI) project was started in 2001. The long-term objective of the HCQI project is to develop a set of indicators that reflect a robust picture of health care quality that can be reliably reported across countries using comparable data. The HCQI project has built on two preexisting international collaborations organized by the Commonwealth Fund of New York (i.e., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and the Nordic Group of countries (i.e., Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden).

The Expert Group of HCQI, a multinational group of health expert representatives of each of the OECD member countries, tasked the OECD Secretariat to continue collecting data for selected indicators (see list below) from the 21 countries participating in the OECD HCQI project and to document and analyze methodological differences across countries that might affect the international comparability of the indicators.
Selected questions that were addressed were:

• What is the appropriate reference population for age adjustment?
• What is the impact of different policies for handling missing data?
• What is the impact of notification policies on cases of vaccine-preventable disease?
• What is the impact of variation in coding practices (for asthma)?
• What is the effect of unique identifiers when dealing with mortality rates?

HCQI has worked to develop an Initial Measure Set. The criteria for original inclusion in the HCQI Initial Measure Set were based on the concept that any indicator chosen for inclusion should be useful as a tool for evidence-based policy decisions. In order to ensure this, two conditions must be met. First, an indicator has to capture an important performance aspect. Second, the indicator has to be scientifically sound. In addition to meeting the above criteria, the data for an indicator that is to be included in the HCQI Initial Measure Set must be available and internationally comparable. The indicators recommended for retention in theHCQI Initial Measure Set are listed below.

• Breast cancer survival
• Mammography screening
• Cervical cancer survival
• Cervical cancer screening
• Colorectal cancer survival
• Incidence of vaccine preventable diseases
• Coverage for basic vaccination
• Asthma mortality rate
• Acute myocardial infarction 30-day case fatality rate
• Stroke 30-day case fatality rate
• Waiting time for femur fracture surgery
• Influenza vaccination for adults over age 65
• Smoking rates

NCHS and ISP provide expert advice on behalf of the US health-system for the Expert Group.