We believe it's everyone's responsibility—health professionals, patients, hospital administrators, insurance companies, lawmakers, and medical schools—to improve the quality of health care. And if we improve the quality of health care, we will make it more affordable. Research tells us that as much as one third of all health care spending is wasted on unnecessary tests and procedures that provide little or no clinical benefit to patients—and may actually be harmful. The New England Healthcare Institute (NEHI) estimates that approximately $800 billion of the $2.4 trillion spent on health care last year was wasted on what is called the overuse, underuse, and misuse of health care services. In its 2008 book, How Many More Studies Will It Take?, NEHI documents hundreds of examples of waste and estimates what we could save by eliminating it. Watch Wendy Everett, NEHI's President, talk about the report and what we can accomplish by reducing or eliminating health care waste.

We believe that one of the most promising answers to the issues we face in health care is this simple equation:

The equation is simple, but we realize the work is complex and that we can't do it alone. That's why we're working with people throughout health care on solutions to the problems of quality, cost, and waste.