Canada's high level of spending on healthcare and lagging performance are leading policy makers and system managers to explore the concept of value. The concept, applied to healthcare, is appearing in medical media and policy documents with increasing frequency and is being used to describe patients' outcomes vis-à-vis the costs of achieving the outcomes. A uniquely Canadian interpretation of value is needed that recognizes that patients', providers' and society's perspectives of the value of the same health service or medical technology differ.

This issue of Healthcare Papers presents complementary articles whose authors explore options for improving the value from public spending on healthcare. Commonalities among the articles indicate that improving value from healthcare should focus on understanding what matters to patients and their caregivers and measuring health and health outcomes and that changes in financial incentives are overdue to support a higher degree of integration between providers and their organizations.

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