November: GBD 2017 is published, producing for the first time the study’s own population and fertility estimates. Described in seven papers, the results cover mortality and life expectancy, causes of death and years of healthy life lost, years lived with disability, overall burden of disease, risk factors, and the chances of each nation meeting 41 of the health-related SDG indicators. This year’s study includes more than 38 billion estimates of 359 diseases and injuries and 84 risk factors in 195 countries and territories, and incorporates input from 3,676 collaborators from 146 countries and territories.
October: IHME publishes its first-ever study of forecasts and alternative scenarios for life expectancy and major causes of death in 2040.
October: The 2018 Roux Prize is awarded to Dr. Cynthia Maung, a Burmese physician and director of the Mae Tao Clinic in Thailand, for using health data to improve the lives of refugees, migrant workers, and internally displaced people along the Burmese-Thai border.
September: IHME releases the first-ever scientific study ranking countries for their levels of human capital. Findings highlight the need for countries to invest in their people’s education and health.
August: The study “Global mortality from firearms, 1990–2016” is published, showing more than a quarter-million people died from firearm-related injuries in 2016, with half of those deaths occurring in only six countries in the Americas: Brazil, the US, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Guatemala.
August: A new Global Burden of Disease report concludes there is no safe level of drinking alcohol and attributes nearly 3 million deaths, globally, in 2016 to alcohol use.
July: IHME and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital begin a partnership to advance knowledge of childhood cancer worldwide.
July: The new Department of Health Metrics Sciences launches at the University of Washington School of Medicine, with Dr. Christopher Murray at its helm.
May: IHME and the World Health Organization sign a memorandum of understanding, agreeing to collaborate in improving the accuracy, timeliness, and policy-relevance of health data, including working together on the annual Global Burden of Disease study.
April: A Global Burden of Disease paper detailing the United States’ disease burden at the state level – the most comprehensive state-by-state health assessment ever undertaken – is published, revealing “dangerous disparities” among states.
March: Professors Christopher Murray and Alan Lopez, the founders of the Global Burden of Disease Study, win the John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award, which annually honors individuals in science whose pioneering work has shown “a significant impact on health outcomes in the developing world.”
March: Studies of child growth failure and educational attainment that map the entire African continent in 5 x 5 square kilometer units are published as the cover story in the journal Nature, expanding IHME’s Local Burden of Disease work.