Jeffrey Braithwaite

Jeffrey Braithwaite is an Australian professor, health services and systems researcher, writer and commentator. He is Founding Director of the Australian Institute of Health Innovation at Macquarie University. His work appears in journals such as the British Medical Journal, The Lancet, Social Science & Medicine, BMJ Quality & Safety, and the International Journal of Quality in Health Care.

He has tertiary qualifications in psychology, industrial relations and business administration and holds a Doctorate of Philosophy from University of New South Wales.

In 2000 he was appointed a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management (FAIM), now known as the Institute of Managers and Leaders (FIML). In 2001 he was conferred as Fellow of the Australasian College of Health Service Management (FCHSM) and in 2012 as Honorary Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators. In 2014 he was made Fellow in the distinction grade, Faculty of Public Health, Royal College of Physicians, United Kingdom (FFPH, RCP). In 2015 he was conferred as Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, United Kingdom (FAcSS). In 2017 he was awarded Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (FAAHMS).

In 2017 the International Society for Quality in Healthcare announced his appointment as President-Elect for 2017-2019 after which he will take on the position of President from 2019-2021.

Braithwaite has appointments with six other universities internationally including Honorary Senior International Research Fellow at the Canon Institute for Global Studies (Japan), Honorary Professor, University of Birmingham (UK), Honorary Professor, Newcastle University (UK) and Adjunct Professor for Resilient Health Care and Patient Safety, University of Southern Denmark (Denmark).

He is Professor of Health Systems Research with the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Macquarie University and his publications can be viewed on Google Scholar.

Braithwaite has published research on resilient healthcare, implementation science, health systems sustainability, complexity science, patient safety, international healthcare reform, professional cultures, change and restructuring.

Resilient Healthcare

From 2011 with colleagues including Professor Erik Hollnagel, University of Southern Denmark, and Professor Bob Wears, University of Florida, and as part of Denmark’s Resilient Health Care Net initiative, Braithwaite co-authored a series of books on resilient healthcare and Safety II.

Implementation science

In 2017 Braithwaite was awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council project grant for the Centre for Research Excellence in Implementation Science in Oncology to turn research knowledge into effective patient-centred practice by bringing together researchers, policy makers, clinicians and patients.

Health system sustainability

In 2016 Braithwaite was awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council partnership centre grant to establish the Centre for Health System Sustainability to support the implementation of research-informed improvements in healthcare.

Complexity science and patient safety

Braithwaite has commented publicly on patient safety and the complex nature of healthcare systems and how the number of adverse events experienced by patients in hospital has not decreased.

In 2017, Braithwaite’s white paper Complexity Science in Healthcare – Aspirations, Approaches, Applications and Accomplishments was published. It advocates for healthcare to be recognised as a complex adaptive system and outlines potential applications to healthcare in Australia and worldwide.

International healthcare reform

Braithwaite consults to the World Health Organization (WHO) and AusAid, particularly to the governments of East Timor, Laos, Papua New Guinea and the People's Republic of China; to WHO Centre for Health Development Kobe in Japan (also known as WHO Kobe Centre) and the Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau.

In 2017 Braithwaite edited Health Systems Improvement across the globe – success stories from 60 countries - which invited authors from poor-, middle- and high-income countries to contribute articles illustrating where their health system has done well and providing lessons for other countries.

• Braithwaite, J., Testa, L., Lamprell, G., Herkes, J., Ludlow, K., McPherson, E., Campbell, M. and Holt, J. Built to last? The sustainability of health system improvements, interventions and change strategies: A study protocol for a systematic review. BMJ Open. 2017 Nov 12;7(11):e018568.
• Braithwaite, J., Mannion, R., Matsuyama, Y., Shekelle, P., Whittaker, S., Al-Adawi, S., Ludlow, K., James, W., Ting, H.P., Herkes, J., Ellis, L., Churruca, K., Nicklin, W. and Hughes, C. Accomplishing reform: successful case studies drawn from the health systems of 60 countries. International Journal for Quality in Health Care. 2017 Sep 20 1-7
• Clay-Williams, R., Ludlow, K., Testa, L., Li, Z. and Braithwaite, J. (2017) Medical leadership, a systematic narrative review: Do hospitals and healthcare organisations perform better when led by doctors? BMJ Open, 7(9): e014474. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-014474.
• Mannion, R.; Braithwaite, J. (2017). "False dawns and new horizons in patient safety research and practice". International Journal of Health Policy and Management. 6 (12): 685–689. doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2017.115. PMC 5726317. PMID 29172374.
• Braithwaite, J.; Churruca, K.; Ellis, L.A. (2017). "Can we fix the uber-complexities of healthcare?". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 110 (10): 393–394. doi:10.1177/0141076817728419. PMID 28920754.
• Hollnagel, E., Braithwaite, J., Wears, R. (eds) (2013) Resilient Health Care, London, Ashgate. ISBN 978-1-4094-6978-0 [4].
• Long, JC.; Cunningham, FC.; Braithwaite, J. (2013). "Bridges, brokers and boundary spanners in collaborative networks: a systematic review". BMC Health Services Research. 13 (1): 158. doi:10.1186/1472-6963-13-158. PMC 3648408. PMID 23631517.
• Runciman, W.B.; Hunt, T.D.; Hannaford, N.A.; Hibbert, P.D.; Westbrook, J.I.; Coiera, E.; Day, R.O.; Hindmarsh, D.M.; McGlynn, E.A.; Braithwaite, J. (2012). "CareTrack: assessing the appropriateness of healthcare delivery in Australia". Medical Journal of Australia. 197 (2): 100–105. doi:10.5694/mja12.10510. PMID 22794056.
• Braithwaite, J, Greenfield, D., Westbrook, J., Pawsey, M., Westbrook, M., Gibberd, R., Naylor, J., Nathan, S., Robinson, M., Runciman, B., Jackson, M., Travaglia, J., Johnston, B., Yen, D., McDonald, H., Low, L., Redman, S., Johnston, B., Corbett, A., Hennessy, D., Clark, J. and Lancaster, J. (2010) Health service accreditation as a predictor of clinical and organizational performance: a blinded, random, stratified study. Quality and Safety in Health Care [now BMJ Quality & Safety], 19:14–21.
• Greenfield, D.; Braithwaite, J. (2008). "Health sector accreditation research: a systematic review". International Journal of Quality in Health Care. 20 (3): 172–183. doi:10.1093/intqhc/mzn005. PMID 18339666.
• Westbrook, J.I.; Braithwaite, J.; Georgiou, A.; Ampt, A.; Creswick, N.; Coiera, E.; Iedema, R. (2007). "Multi-method evaluation of information and communication technologies in health in the context of wicked problems and socio-technical theory". Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 14 (6): 746–755. doi:10.1197/jamia.m2462. PMC 2213479. PMID 17712083.
• Braithwaite, J (2007). "How to restructure-proof your health service". British Medical Journal. 335 (7610): 99. doi:10.1136/bmj.39272.443137.59. PMC 1914453.
• Braithwaite, J.; Westbrook, M.T.; Mallock, N.A.; Travaglia, J.F.; Iedema, R.A. (2006). "Experiences of health professionals who conducted root cause analyses after undergoing a safety improvement program". Quality and Safety in Health Care. 15 (6): 393–399. doi:10.1136/qshc.2005.017525. PMC 2464895. PMID 17142585.