SP-009-010 Customer KPI Definition and Alignment Helpers
Scope and Purpose
This procedure establishes the guidelines for defining Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and evaluation protocols when integrating the device into a customer's clinical workflow. It provides the rationale for steering customers away from redundant clinical accuracy validations (often proposed as informal "pseudo-studies") and towards measuring real-world workflow impact and adoption.
The primary objective during implementation is not to re-validate the technology, but to measure how effectively the solution integrates into the clinical environment, supports decision-making, and enhances efficiency for healthcare professionals.
Realistic and Appropriate KPIs
A customer has realistic and appropriate KPIs when they:
- Understand their objectives: They have a clear view of what they want to achieve from a business perspective.
- Understand what to measure and how to measure it: They select the right metrics and apply suitable methodologies to track performance effectively.
Measuring What Matters: Real-World Impact Metrics
Instead of setting up complex studies to re-validate accuracy, the focus must be on how the solution modifies behavior, optimizes the clinical workflow, and provides value to the user in their daily operations. These metrics do not require special study designs or extra steps for the physician; they are gathered from standard usage.
Primary KPIs
These metrics demonstrate the fundamental value of the integration:
- Adoption and Usage Volume: Tracking the number of cases where professionals actively consult the analysis over time. Sustained use is the strongest indicator of clinical value and acceptance.
- Image Quality Improvement: Rejection rate by Legit.Health's Diagnostic Image Quality Assessment (DIQA). This measures how the device helps primary care physicians capture better images, significantly reducing the burden of ungradable cases reaching specialists.
- Clinician Satisfaction: Measuring the perceived clinical utility and satisfaction of the professionals using the Clinical Utility Questionnaire (CUS) and Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSAT).
Secondary KPIs
These metrics measure downstream systemic impact:
- Impact on Referral Volumes: Evaluating aggregated historical referral data versus current data to see if overall unnecessary referrals have decreased, without needing case-by-case tracking.
- Time Efficiency: Measuring the average time spent per case review by specialists before and after device integration.
The following table outlines the standard impact metrics that should be measured to evaluate integration and efficiency:
| Area | Objective | KPI | Metric | Responsible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General KPIs | Professional Adoption | Number of primary care physicians using the tool | Total number | Customer |
| General KPIs | Professional Adoption | Number of specialists using the tool | Total number | Customer |
| General KPIs | Clinical Utility | Clinical Utility Questionnaire (CUS) | Target 70% | Customer & Legit.Health |
| General KPIs | Customer Satisfaction | Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSAT) | Target 75% | Customer & Legit.Health |
| General KPIs | Solution Usage | Number of images uploaded | Total number | Legit.Health |
| Quality Control | Ensure image quality | Acceptable quality image rate | % of images accepted | Legit.Health |
| Processing | Optimize technical times | Image processing time | Average seconds | Customer |
Division of Responsibilities
When measuring these impact metrics, responsibilities must be clearly delineated between Legit.Health and the customer.
What Legit.Health provides:
- Aggregate Data and Metrics: Anonymized, aggregated data derived from the device outputs, including DIQA rejection rates, overall image quality scores, total processed images, and the general distribution of malignancy suspicions.
- Standardized Evaluation Tools: The necessary framework and support for the Clinical Utility Questionnaire (CUS) and Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSAT) to accurately measure user satisfaction.
- Methodological Support: Expert guidance to ensure the pilot is structured in a way that generates comparable, standardized, and useful data for business decisions.
What Legit.Health does not provide:
- Workflow Data Collection & Analysis: Legit.Health does not build customized forms within the customer's Hospital Information System (HIS) to collect internal data, nor does it perform the final statistical analysis comparing historical customer data. The execution of internal data collection and workflow analysis must be led by the customer.
Understand the Limitations (Optional)
The Fallacy of "Pseudo-Studies" for Clinical Accuracy
When implementing the solution, customers often propose conducting a local "study" or "evaluation" to measure the device's diagnostic accuracy (for example, by measuring concordance between the device's output and the opinion of their local clinicians). Legit.Health must discourage this approach for several critical reasons:
- The Device is Already Clinically Validated: The technology is already fully validated as a medical device. Its clinical performance metrics (sensitivity, specificity, AUROC) have been proven through rigorous clinical investigations and are continuously monitored as part of Legit.Health's regulatory obligations. For published validation data and further details, see https://legit.health/validation.
- Flawed Methodology (Lack of a Gold Standard): Concordance with a single clinician is not a valid measure of diagnostic accuracy. Assuming that the clinician's judgment is always correct is misleading. A true clinical study requires histological confirmation (biopsy) or, at minimum, a consensus of at least three expert specialists to establish a true "Gold Standard".
- Information Asymmetry: The device and clinicians are not directly comparable. The device analyzes only the provided image and basic patient data. The clinician makes their decision based on a holistic view: the patient's full clinical history, family risk factors, physical examination, and the patient's concern. This asymmetry means differences are expected and do not necessarily indicate an error by either party.
- Complexity and Cost of Rigorous Protocols: If a customer genuinely wishes to measure clinical performance scientifically, they cannot do it informally. It requires setting up a proper clinical investigation protocol, controlling for biases, obtaining ethical committee (IRB) approvals, and ensuring histological ground truth. This level of rigor far exceeds the scope, budget, and timeline of a standard software integration project.
The Complexity of a Proper Pre/Post Workflow Study
Should a customer still insist on measuring the impact on their diagnostic decisions and referrals despite Legit.Health's recommendations, they must understand the methodological requirements. To measure this scientifically without introducing clinical biases, they cannot just compare their diagnosis with the device's; they must use a "Pre/Post" study design, collecting data before and after the professional interacts with the device's output.
The workflow would require a two-step data collection process for every single case:
- Step 1 (Pre-intervention): The professional registers their initial triage decision (e.g., No referral, Routine, Urgent) based solely on their clinical judgment before seeing the AI output.
- Step 2 (Post-intervention): The professional registers their final decision using the exact same scale after reviewing the device's results.
Due to the burden this places on the clinical workflow and the inherent biases, Legit.Health strongly recommends against attempting these complex studies during standard integrations.