Measurement in Veterans Affairs Health Services Research: Veterans as a Special Population

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development (VA HSR&D) service has been a leader in focusing on system-wide measurement excellence, in part because veterans represent a distinct and special population. Veterans are a large and highly selected group with an increasingly recognized cultural identity. Further, eligible veterans are served by a large, nationally integrated health care system. Thus, the veteran population and the VA health system embody a microcosm in which measurement quality must be assessed and addressed. In this article, we briefly discuss the consequences of poor measurement and the importance of assessing measurement quality across the varied populations in which health services research is conducted, using the veteran population as a case example. We then introduce a series of related articles, each of which focuses on a measurement issue important in current health services research.