PROFESSOR JEFFREY BRAITHWAITE Founding Director, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University
The road to 2030 Where are we headed in healthcare?
Where will you be in 10 years? Watching your family
are aged over 85 years and this is on the rise.
grow, forging a career, enjoying retirement or
In addition, one in every two Australians is now
slowing down with advancing older age?
living with the long-term burden of at least one
Just as our requirements as individuals
chronic disease such as diabetes, heart disease,
change over time, so do our healthcare needs alter with our changing life circumstances.
kidney disease, asthma or cancer. Obesity is also concerning across all age brackets.
We need more care when younger (for baby health
It’s a slow-ticking problem, as being obese is
and immunisation) and older (for arthritis, heart
associated with other illnesses such as diabetes,
disease or aged care), and for special circumstances
stroke, heart disease, some forms of cancer,
(breaking a leg, having a baby, getting the flu).
breathing problems, gout and poorer mental
But what we often don’t think about is that the health system itself is evolving to support us.
health outcomes. The challenge for the future health system
Drawing on research I’ve been conducting with
will be to provide high quality, safe healthcare
colleagues in Australia and internationally, we can
for growing numbers of people who are not only
point to four key trends and one conclusion that
living longer but coping with more than one long-
will pave the healthcare road to 2030.
term illness. More people in the emergency room,
More people will live longer with more illness
the GP clinic, and in acute care puts more pressure
Worldwide, people are living longer. In Australia a
More changes will occur, rapidly
man who is 65 years old today can expect to live another 20 years, and a woman a couple of years longer. Already more than half a million Australians
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The Health Advocate • DECEMBER 2019
on the system.
New medicines, technologies and ways of delivering services are emerging constantly. Whether or not they make it into the health system to benefit the
