Variation in health and healthcare according to socioeconomic, geographical, ethnic and certain other factors is generally considered unacceptable and is increasingly targeted as a measure of individual health service and overall health system performance. Accurate quantification of variation can provide valuable insights into the ‘preventive potential’ for given health outcomes and quantification of drivers of variation provides evidence for intervention, including the most economically efficient points for investment. Such quantification requires individual-level data integrated with the standard area-based measures, which we have from multiple datasets. This program of work concentrates on quantification of drivers of variation and targets for intervention, integrating economic and qualitative work, and scaling up individual quantification of variation to the whole Australian population.

Related projects

• Variation in CVD risk, incidence, care and outcomes
• Variation in fatal burden of disease, preventive CVD care and end-of-life care