When selecting a healthcare assessment tool, health professionals must consider the broader issues of validity and reliability, suggests Bernard Gibbon

Healthcare assessment has always been an important activity for clinical staff, managers and researchers alike. It involves collecting information which can be collated and put to meaningful uses, for example, determining the effectiveness of a particular- intervention or the priority of services. The context of healthcare provision at a time of financial constraint, with a rise in technologically-based care, consumerism, value for money and a culture of clinical effectiveness, has emphasised the need for evidence-based practice and increasing sophistication in measuring health and healthcare interventions (1).