“Value” in health care. Everybody seems to want it but no agrees what it is.

That’s the consensus among various health care industry stakeholders surveyed by (NYSE:Q). The Durham pharmaceutical services provider’s new report “Value is the Target” finds that even though the health care industry has differing views on what constitutes value, the disparate parts of the industry must work together to improve health care outcomes and health care quality while also reducing cost.

“Despite the fact that the healthcare industry has been discussing the need for clearly defined value as part of the treatment proposition for many years, our survey shows that stakeholders continue to hold vastly different opinions about what even constitutes value, making it challenging for the industry to align behind value goals,” Quintiles said in the report.

Quintiles says greater clarity can be achieved if the biopharma industry finds ways to collaborate with other health care stakeholders. European companies are making more progress toward these goals. As an example, Quintiles notes that some European companies are conducting additional phase III studies to gather more data while a drug is going through the approval process. These data will meet demands for evidence showing the drug’s value.

When it comes to defining value, 63 percent of payers chose efficacy compared to just 21 percent of health care providers and 20 percent of biopharma representatives. “Improved quality of life” was chosen by 34 percent of health care providers as the top definition of value; a view held by just 1 percent of U.S. payers and `11 percent of European payers.

Biopharma executives expressed little consensus on their top definition for value: 32 percent selected “unmet medical need”; 21 percent chose “improved quality of life”; and 20 percent chose “degree of improved efficacy.”

Quintiles says the findings suggest that more cross-industry discussions involving all stakeholders – including patients – are needed to find ways to identify and deliver value and to communicate that value to health care decision makers.

But payers are expected to have the greatest influence in defining health care value going forward. According to the survey findings, 74 percent of U.S. payers, 66 percent of providers and 59 percent of European payers ranked payers among the top two influences. Quintiles’ survey also found that regulators are seen as very influential; 49 percent of U.S. payers, 36 percent of European payers and 28 percent U.S. providers put regulators among the top two influencers.

Patient influence is growing, with that group selected by 13 percent of biopharma respondents and 21 percent of providers choosing patients among their top two choices of influencers.

“Value is the Target” was compiled based on responses from more than 300 surveyed U.S. and European executives in biopharmaceuticals, managed care and insurance as well as health care providers. Data were collected online between April 30 and May 30 last year. The report expands on Quintiles annual “New Health Report” which the company had released each of the last three years.