Many countries are facing a rapid increase of the population of people living with chronic conditions, which poses a challenge to their societies and health systems. To improve the quality of care, ameliorate health outcomes and control expenditures, countries are redesigning their health systems towards more people-centred and coordinated care delivery. Primary or ambulatory care services play a central role in such systems, as they are the first and main contact point for community-dwelling adults with chronic conditions.

To guide this process, countries could benefit from comparing the care experiences and health related behaviours and outcomes reported by people with (or at risk of developing) chronic conditions within their regions or in comparison with other countries. This requires patient-reported indicators that allow cross-country comparison. The Health Ministers of OECD Member countries and several other countries mandated the OECD in January 2017 to lead an effort to develop and implement such indicators. This has resulted in the PaRIS-initiative, of which one of the work streams is to develop generic (i.e., non-disease specific) patient-reported indicators that are relevant and appropriate for adults with chronic conditions using primary or ambulatory care, and to pilot and implement these quality indicators in participating countries. This works stream is called the International Survey for People Living with Chronic Conditions, in short the PaRIS-survey.

More information about the PaRIS survey can be found here: https://www.oecd.org/health/paris/