Theory Behind the Bridge Principles

Decisions must be made constantly in all areas of life. This is also true for medical research and health care, when, for example, one must decide which parameters to apply to measure effectiveness (output) or value for patients (outcome) of medical interventions. In patients with diabetes mellitus, lowering elevated blood glucose is an output. We accordingly call outputs the results of all health care services. If the result of a health care service can be described as (re)gained years of life or (re)gained improvement in quality of life, we refer to it as an outcome.