Three numbers you need to know: 60-30-10 challenge
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Three numbers you need to know: 60-30-10 challenge

Our new research highlights the long-term endemic issues preventing the health system from providing better care to patients.

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Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite, lead author and Founding Director of the Australian Institute of Health Innovation (AIHI), says that while hospitals and the health system are innovating to meet new challenges every day, performance has flatlined.

The research points to a three-pronged challenge standing in the way of progress:

  • 60 per cent of care on average is in line with evidence- or consensus-based guidelines
  • 30 per cent is some form of waste or of low value
  • 10 per cent causes harm to patients.

An exploration of these issues and strategies for the future are explored in the open access BMC Medicine article 'The three numbers you need to know about healthcare: the 60-30-10 Challenge' by Professors Jeffrey Braithwaite and Johanna Westbrook from AIHI and Professor Paul Glasziou from Bond University. The authors are also investigators with the NHMRC Partnership Centre for Health System Sustainability.