This study presents metrics to help work out what Tommy's should measure and how Tommy's should report impact. These metrics cover four different elements of Tommy's strategy: the research centres, the implementation centre, the pregnancy information service, and the clinics. The aim is to work out how each contributes to Tommy's desired outcomes, namely the reduction of stillbirth, preterm birth and miscarriage.

Development of metrics to measure the impact of Tommy's work

Advait Deshpande, Susan Guthrie, Carla Cox, Adam Bertscher

ResearchPublished Sep 17, 2018

This study presents a set of metrics to help work out what Tommy's should measure and how Tommy's should report impact. These metrics cover four different elements of Tommy's strategy: the research centres, the implementation centre, the pregnancy information service, and the clinics. The aim is to work out how each contributes to Tommy's desired outcomes, namely the reduction of stillbirth, preterm birth and miscarriage.

The researchers carried out the study using a mixed-methods approach involving a workshop with Tommy's, a focused review of existing frameworks and Tommy's strategy documentation, interviews with key stakeholders engaged with Tommy's mission, and an internal workshop.

Key Findings

This study builds on an existing framework to suggest additional metrics to measure the impact of Tommy's work. An overall logic model is identified to infer and justify appropriate indicators and their respective data sources with which to measure Tommy's impact in stillbirth, preterm birth and miscarriages.

Important insights that informed the development of these metrics included:

  • The rates of stillbirth, preterm birth and miscarriage are interrelated.
  • There is no unified data source across England, Wales and Scotland for measuring the ultimate impact in terms of reducing the number of babies who die during pregnancy or birth.
  • There are significant gaps and variations in the data measured in England, Wales and Scotland.
  • Looking at more common intermediate outcomes can be helpful in terms of understanding pregnancy and maternity-related outcomes.

Topics

Document Details

Citation

RAND Style Manual
Deshpande, Advait, Susan Guthrie, Carla Cox, and Adam Bertscher, Development of metrics to measure the impact of Tommy's work, RAND Corporation, RR-2587-TOMMYS, 2018. As of September 14, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2587.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Deshpande, Advait, Susan Guthrie, Carla Cox, and Adam Bertscher, Development of metrics to measure the impact of Tommy's work. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2018. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2587.html.
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The research described in this report was commissioned by Tommy's and conducted by RAND Europe.

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