Table 2.

Template of Measurement Attributes to Be Used by the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Consortium^*

Attribute	Explanation
Title	Identifies the title of the measure
Description	Provides a concise statement of the specific aspects of health care, the patient population, providers, setting(s) of care, and the time period that the measure addresses
Rationale	Identifies the rationale that briefly explains the importance of the measure (i.e., why it is being used)
Inclusion/exclusion	Provides the general description of any component that is the basis for inclusions and exclusions for the variable (e.g., time period, type of research)
Possible descriptive data to collect	Lists descriptive data that should be collected with this variable (e.g., type of funding source, type of research)
Data source	Identifies the data source(s) necessary to implement the measure
Scoring	Identifies the method used to score the measure (choose one of the following: unspecified, categorical, continuous, count, frequency distribution, nonweighted score/composite score, rate, ratio, or weighted score/composite score)
Unit of analysis	Clarifies what each observation is

^*This template was adapted from a template created by the National Quality Measurement Clearinghouse (NQMC) and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The original template is in the public domain and is available at http://www.qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov/about/template-of-attributes.aspx (accessed December 4, 2012).