The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) is working with healthcare analytics company Komodo Health to modernize how healthcare quality measures are developed, validated, and improved.

For more than 35 years, NCQA has advanced healthcare quality through transparency and accountability, with its Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS), which is used across commercial, Medicaid, and Medicare health plans, as well as other healthcare organizations. 

NCQA said it is advancing HEDIS toward a more focused, meaningful portfolio of measures that delivers clearer, more actionable signals to improve care, accountability, and value. Achieving that vision, the organization says, requires both the right measures and the ability to develop, validate, and refresh them quickly enough to keep pace with clinical evidence and real-world care.

Traditionally, developing new quality measures required assembling fragmented datasets from multiple sources, resulting in lengthy development and testing cycles. Through this collaboration, NCQA is leveraging Komodo’s Healthcare Map, a view of more than 330 million de-identified patient journeys, to analyze care across insurance types, care settings, and patient populations from a single longitudinal data source.

Marmot, Komodo's platform, powered by the Healthcare Map, will also enable NCQA researchers to rapidly explore complex healthcare questions while producing transparent, reproducible analyses grounded in real-world evidence. Together, these capabilities allow NCQA to evaluate new measures more quickly and efficiently, and ensure HEDIS continues to reflect the realities of modern healthcare without compromising the scientific rigor and transparency that quality measurement demands.

“The future of quality measurement depends on our ability to ensure measures remain meaningful, actionable, and aligned with how care is delivered,” said Tricia Elliott, vice president, quality implementation, NCQA, in a statement. “By working with Komodo, we’re advancing a more dynamic approach to quality measurement, one that enables us to develop and evolve HEDIS measures across commercial, Medicaid, and Medicare populations with greater speed while remaining grounded in rigorous evidence.”

The collaboration has already supported the development and testing of a new HEDIS measure: Follow-Up After Positive Colorectal Cancer Non-Invasive Screening Test (COF-E). The measure evaluates whether patients receive a timely colonoscopy following a positive non-invasive colorectal cancer screening result, supporting earlier detection and treatment, and will be implemented in Measurement Year 2027.

Historically, quantitatively testing a new HEDIS measure has taken two to three months. With Komodo’s capabilities, NCQA tested the COF-E measure in about a month for Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, and commercial populations.

“This effort underscores the power of real-world evidence and trusted, healthcare-native AI that enables healthcare organizations to better understand what’s happening across patient populations,” said Miles Ennis, president of Komodo Health, in a statement. “We’re proud to support NCQA as they work to ensure quality measurement evolves alongside advances in healthcare delivery and continues to drive better outcomes for patients.”

NCQA will continue leveraging Komodo’s capabilities to support the development and evolution of additional HEDIS measures.