RE: All Quality Metrics are Wrong: the origin of that aphorism

  • Mark H. Ebell, Professor of Family Medicien, Michigan State University
25 February 2025

I appreciate the content and spirit of the editorial entitled "All Quality Metrics are Wrong; Some Quality Metrics Could Become Useful". However, the title strikes me as perhaps being an adaptation of SIr Muir Gray's quote about screening for disease: "All screening programmes do harm; some do good as well, and, of these, some do more good than harm at reasonable cost."(1) I had the privilege of meeting SIr Gray and Sir Iain Chalmers who were co-founders of the Cochrane Collaboration while cycling through Britain a few years before that quote appeared in 2005. I just thought it would be good to highlight the likely origin of the aphorism and its continuing relevance today.

Sincerely,

Mark H. Ebell MD, MS
Professor of Family Medicine
College of Human Medicine
Michigan State University

1 . Gray JAM, Patnick J, Blanks RG. Maximising benefit and minimising harm of screening. Br Med J 2008; 336(7642):480–483. doi: 10.1136/bmj.39470.643218.94

Competing Interests: None declared.
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