The evidence is concentrated in two types of PMM strategies : implementation strategies ( in-service training , continuing education , supervision ) and performance-based financing .
Major gaps exist in accountability arrangements particularly the use of audit and feedback .
The least studied types of outcomes were unintended effects , harm and social equity .
Conclusions The evidence is clustered around interventions that are unlikely to achieve transformational change in health outcomes .
The gaps identified suggest that routinely used PMM strategies are implemented without sufficient knowledge of their effects .
Introduction We mapped available evidence on  performance measurement and management ( PMM ) strategies in primary healthcare ( PHC ) systems of low-income and middle-income countries ( LMICs ) .
Widely used , their effectiveness remains inconclusive .
This evidence gap map characterises existing research and evidence gaps .
The impact of training informal health care providers in India: A randomized controlled trial
Delivering health care to mystery patients Many families in developing countries do not have access to medical doctors and instead receive health care from informal providers . Das et al. used “ mystery ” patients ( trained actors ) to test whether a 9-month training program  improved the quality of care delivered by informal providers in West Bengal ( see the Perspective by Powell-Jackson ) . The patients did not identify themselves to the providers and were not told which providers had participated in the training program . The results of this blinded assessment showed that medical doctors delivered better care than informal providers but that the training program closed much of the gap . Science , this issue p. 80 ; see also p. 34 Training helped informal providers deliver better care for angina , diarrhea , and asthma . [ Also see Perspective by Powell-Jackson ] INTRODUCTION In rural India , health care providers without formal medical training and self-declared “ doctors ” are sought for up to 75 % of primary care visits . The frequent use of such informal providers , despite legal prohibitions on their practice s , in part reflects the absence of trained medical professionals in rural locations . For example , in the majority of villages in the Indian states of Rajasthan , Madhya Pradesh , and West Bengal , informal providers are the only proximate source of health care . RATIONALE The status of informal providers in the complex Indian health system is the subject of a highly charged debate among policy-makers and the medical establishment . The official view of the establishment is that fully trained providers are the only legitimate source of health care , and training informal providers legitimizes an illegal activity and worsens population health outcomes . In contrast , given the lack of availability of trained providers and the fact that informal providers are tightly linked with the communities that they serve , others believe that training can serve as a stopgap measure to improve health care in t and em with better regulation and reform of the public health care system . However , despite the policy interest and important ramifications for the country , there is little evidence regarding the benefits ( or lack thereof ) of training informal providers . We report on the impact of a multitopic training program for informal providers in the Indian state of West Bengal that provided 72 sessions of training over 9 months . We used a r and omized controlled trial design , together with visits by unannounced st and ardized patients ( “ mystery clients ” ) , to measure the extent to which training could improve the clinical practice of informal providers over the range of conditions that they face . The conditions presented by st and ardized patients were blinded from program implementers . Therefore , we view the evaluation of this multitopic training program as a measure of impact on primary care in general . St and ardized patient data are accompanied by data from day-long clinical observations , providing a comprehensive picture of provider practice . Our study also benchmarks the impact of training against the performance of doctors in public primary health centers serving the same region . Lastly , it explores whether the training affected patient dem and for informal providers .  RESULTS Mean attendance at each training session was 56 % [ 95 % confidence interval ( CI ) : 51 , 62 % ] , with no contamination from the control group . Using st and ardized patient data , we find that providers allocated to the training group were 4.1 ( 1.7 , 6.5 ) percentage points , or 15.2 % , more likely to adhere to condition-specific checklists than those in the control group . The training increased rates of correct case management by 7.9 ( 0.4 , 15.5 ) percentage points , or 14.2 % , and patient caseload by 0.8 to 1.8 ( 0.13 , 3.57 ) patients per day , or 7.6 to 17.0 % . Data from clinical observations show similar patterns . Although correct case management among doctors in public clinics was 14.7 ( –0.1 , 30.4 ) percentage points , or 28.3 % , higher than among untrained informal providers , the training program reduced this gap by half for providers with mean attendance and reduced the gap almost entirely for providers who completed the full course . However , the training had no effect on the use of unnecessary medicines and antibiotics , although both training- and control-group informal providers prescribed 18.8 ( 7.7 , 28.9 ) percentage points , or 28.2 % , fewer unnecessary antibiotics than public-sector providers . CONCLUSION Training informal providers increased correct case management rates but did not reduce the use of unnecessary medicines or antibiotics . At the same time , training did not lead informal providers to violate rules with greater frequency or worsen their clinical practice , both of which are concerns that have been raised by representatives of the Indian Medical Association . Our findings thus suggest that multitopic medical training may offer an effective short-run strategy to improved health care provision and complement critical investments in the quality of public care . Informal health care providers are the backbone of India ’s primary health care system . In rural India , up to 75 % of primary care visits are to informal providers . We evaluated a training program for these informal providers by using a r and omized controlled design . In our sample of 200 villages in West Bengal , there are 30 informal providers for every public-sector doctor . Health care providers without formal medical qualifications provide more than 70 % of all primary care in rural India . Training these informal providers may be one way to improve the quality of care where few alternatives exist . We report on a r and omized controlled trial assessing a program that provided 72 sessions of training over 9 months to 152 informal providers ( out of 304 ) . Using st and ardized patients ( “ mystery clients ” ) , we assessed clinical practice for three different conditions to which both providers and trainers were blinded during the intervention , representative of the range of conditions that these providers normally diagnose and treat . Training increased correct case management by 7.9 percentage points ( 14.2 % ) but did not affect the use of unnecessary medicines and antibiotics . At a program cost of $ 175 per trainee , our results suggest that multitopic medical training offers an effective short-run strategy to improve health care
The evidence is concentrated in two types of PMM strategies : implementation strategies ( in-service training , continuing education , supervision ) and performance-based financing .
Major gaps exist in accountability arrangements particularly the use of audit and feedback .
The least studied types of outcomes were unintended effects , harm and social equity .
Conclusions The evidence is clustered around interventions that are unlikely to achieve transformational change in health outcomes .
The gaps identified suggest that routinely used PMM strategies are implemented without sufficient knowledge of their effects .
Introduction We mapped available evidence on  performance measurement and management ( PMM ) strategies in primary healthcare ( PHC ) systems of low-income and middle-income countries ( LMICs ) .
Widely used , their effectiveness remains inconclusive .
This evidence gap map characterises existing research and evidence gaps .