If the last 17 years have taught us anything, it’s that the road ahead will bring change. When NCQA opened its doors in 1990, systematic measurement of health care quality simply didn't exist. Today, efforts to measure and improve quality are underway nationwide.  Decision-makers in corporate boardrooms, political backrooms, and kitchen tables across America debate how we can get better value for our health care dollar. The stakes are high: we spend $2 trillion a year to get healthy and stay that way. Clearly, we have a long way to go before we have the kind of health care system we need and deserve.

Where does the road to better health care lead? And how do we get there? Simply put, it should be safeguarding and protecting the collective health of our fellow Americans. Health is a precious asset—but too often, we don’t treat it as such. Every action we take, every change to the system we implement must be aimed squarely at maximizing health.

As this national debate changes, it is only natural for NCQA to change, too. And we already have: we’ve broadened our quality measurement and improvement efforts from the health plan to the hospital and physician sectors. We’ve developed performance measures to assess care all along the journey a patient takes from illness to wellness. And we continuously press the boundaries of quality measurement and improvement to reach the millions of Americans who, through no fault of their own, have been left out of the progress we have made to date.

To signify this change, we at NCQA have updated our logo and our presence on the Web. Our new logo retains our familiar red Q, emphasizing our long-held emphasis on quality. We have added a symbol to remind us all that we need to always be raising our expectations so that we can travel the road to better health care together. And finally, we have refashioned our tagline to make explicit the demonstrable link of measurement to the wonder of better health.

And as I’m sure you have noticed, our Web site has also been updated to better provide you the wealth of quality information we have to offer. We've rearranged the furniture a little, so to speak, and added new features, with the goal of making it simpler to find the information you need.

This is an exciting time in health care. Together, we’ve changed the way we look at care and millions of people have benefited from the improvements we have wrought. But the need for more improvement—on a much greater scale—persists.

As we travel that road together, I, like you, look forward to what it will bring us.

Margaret E. O'Kane
President