"A health-care baseline is essentially where you are "at" on the broad, complex spectrum of physical, mental and emotional health," explains Mary James, MD, an internal medicine physician at Stanford. "This can be a critical starting point for achieving future health goals."

What does baseline mean in healthcare?

An initial measurement of a condition that is taken at an early time point and used for comparison over time to look for changes. For example, the size of a tumor will be measured before treatment (baseline) and then afterwards to see if the treatment had an effect.

What does baseline mean?

A baseline is a fixed point of reference that is used for comparison purposes. In business, the success of a project or product is often measured against a baseline number for costs, sales, or any number of other variables. ... The baseline serves as the starting point against which all future sales are measured.