History

June: Dr. Richard Horton, Editor in Chief of The Lancet, is awarded the Roux Prize for lifetime achievement in population health.

April: The study “Health effects of dietary risks in 195 countries, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017” finds that poor diet kills more people globally than tobacco and high blood pressure.

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.

November: The policy report India: Health of the Nation’s States is published. The product of a collaboration between IHME and the Indian Council of Medical Research, the report describes the distribution and trends of diseases and risk factors for every state of India from 1990 to 2016.

October: The 2017 Roux Prize is awarded to Dr. Samba Sow, a Malian physician who generated and used metrics on the disease burden related to Hib – Haemophilus influenzae type b disease – to secure political and financial support to vaccinate thousands of children against the disease.

September: IHME hosts a celebration of the 20^th anniversary of the GBD study. Highlights include keynote speeches by Bill Gates and World Bank Group President Jim Kim.

September: GBD 2016 is published, including the second annual report on the Sustainable Development Goal indicators, with the participation of 2,518 collaborators from 133 countries and three territories. The study includes 333 diseases and injuries, 84 risk factors, and 23 age groups, estimated for a total of 774 locations.

September: A census tract-level health analysis of Seattle and King County, a joint project between IHME and Public Health – Seattle & King County, reveals an 18-year gap in life expectancy between different parts of the county.

June: IHME celebrates the 10^th anniversary of its founding at the University of Washington.

May: The article “Healthcare Access and Quality Index based on mortality from causes amenable to personal health care in 195 countries and territories, 1990–2015: a novel analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015” is published, showing massive inequity of access to and quality of health care among and within countries, and concluding that people are dying from causes with well-known treatments.

January: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation commits to investing $279 million in IHME to expand its work over the next decade.

October: The University of Washington’s Population Health Initiative receives a $210 million gift from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to fund construction of a new building to house several UW units working in population health, including IHME.

October: The GBD 2015 study is published and introduces the expected burden of disease based on a population’s level of socioeconomic development – as measured by the Socio-demographic Index. GBD 2015 is also compliant with recommendations set forth by Guidelines for Accurate and Transparent Health Estimates Reporting (GATHER). Data visualizations for the study include 24 billion results.

September: Dr. John Q. Wong wins the 2016 Roux Prize for expanding health insurance in the Philippines.

November: IHME joins the newly formed Partners for Diagnosis and Treatment, a coalition created by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and led by the American Society of Clinical Pathology in order to improve cancer diagnostics and treatment in low-income countries. 

October: Dr. Agnes Binagwaho, Minister of Health of Rwanda, is awarded the 2015 Roux Prize for using GBD data to improve Rwandan health. Among her achievements are initiatives to improve indoor air quality and combat neonatal deaths.

October: The University of Washington Press publishes An Integrative Metaregression Framework for Descriptive Epidemiology, an in-depth explanation of the methods underlying the morbidity estimation in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study.

October: A subnational disease burden initiative is launched in India through a collaboration between IHME, the Indian Council of Medical Research, and the Public Health Foundation of India, under the aegis of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

July: The Lives Saved Scorecard shows that from 2000 to 2014, countries and donors spent a combined $207 billion on children’s health – and saved the lives of 34 million children. 

May: IHME and the World Health Organization sign a landmark agreement to improve data used to generate estimates of levels and trends in health.

April: Epic Measures: One Doctor, Seven Billion Patients is published by Harper Wave. Written by journalist Jeremy N. Smith, the book chronicles the Global Burden of Disease enterprise’s development, from Director Christopher Murray’s early interest in population health to the first few years of IHME’s existence.

December: Country-specific cause-of-death data from the Global Burden of Disease enterprise are published in The Lancet, showing that life expectancy has increased worldwide since 1990 as death rates from infectious diseases and cardiovascular disease have fallen. 

October: The University of Washington Center for Health Trends and Forecasts is established at IHME. Funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the new Center joins 11 NIA Demography Centers at leading universities and policy organizations around the United States.

September: Dr. Rodrigo Guerrero, mayor of Cali, Colombia, wins the inaugural Roux Prize for using data to address violence as a public health crisis.

August: Dr. Christopher Murray presents findings from the paper “Global, regional, and national incidence and mortality for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria during 1990–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013” at a symposium at the 20^th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne. He is joined by Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS; Deborah Birx, United States Global AIDS coordinator; and Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; with Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet, as moderator.

January: First installment of GBD 2013, “Smoking Prevalence and Cigarette Consumption in 187 Countries, 1980-2012,” is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Further GBD updates are released throughout the year.

November: The Roux Prize is launched to reward use of Global Burden of Disease evidence to improve health.

September: In a collaboration with the World Bank, IHME produces six regional GBD reports, introduced by IHME Director Christopher Murray at an event at the Bank’s headquarters in Washington, DC. This marks the 20th anniversary of the original disease burden work.

July: Policy report “The State of US Health: Innovations, Insights, and Recommendations from the Global Burden of Disease Study” is released at a White House event with First Lady Michelle Obama.

June: Following a productive policy summit in China, IHME begins a collaboration with Chinese health officials to measure the burden of disease in provinces throughout the country.

March: Country-specific findings from GBD 2010 are released, detailing changes in health between 1990 and 2010 and main risk factors in each of 187 countries.

December: The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2010 (GBD 2010), covering the years 1990 to 2010, is published in The Lancet, the first time the journal has dedicated an entire triple issue to one study. A collaborative effort of 488 researchers from 303 institutions in 50 countries, GBD 2010 covers 187 countries, 20 age groups, 21 regions, 291 diseases and injuries, and 67 risk factors.

September: First cohort of students begin PhD program in Global Health: Metrics and Implementation Science through the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington, while also working as research assistants at IHME.

May: IHME begins an innovative, multiyear collaboration with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to create an integrated tracking system that will monitor health and inform health policy priorities.

October: The results of IHME’s assessment of Avahan, an HIV-prevention program in India, appear in The Lancet.

June: IHME’s initial US county-level life expectancy work is published in Population Health Metrics, showing that the US is falling behind other countries.

March: The Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx) is launched at the Global Health Metrics and Evaluation conference, creating the world’s most comprehensive catalog of surveys, censuses, vital statistics, and other health-related data.

June: IHME’s first Post-Bachelor Fellowship cohort graduates from the Master of Public Health program at the University of Washington. Since then, this has become one of the most sought-after fellowships in the country, attracting hundreds of applicants each year.

April: “Maternal mortality for 181 countries, 1980-2008: a systematic analysis of progress towards Millennium Development Goal 5” is published in The Lancet, changing the conversation about maternal mortality. The New York Times features the study in a front-page article, Maternal Deaths Decline Sharply Across the Globe. To illustrate the maternal mortality trends, IHME produces its first data visualizations.

September: The Health Metrics and Evaluation track of the Master of Public Health program is offered for the first time through the University of Washington’s School of Public Health.

July: First Financing Global Health (FGH) report is published, tracking more than $200 billion in public and private contributions to public health. Annual updates to FGH are produced in following years.

April: IHME releases initial work on risk factors in PLOS Medicine. Included are estimates of the impact of risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, high blood sugar, and overweight/obesity in the US.

December: IHME’s assessment of diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus vaccination programs is published in The Lancet, challenging accepted numbers and paving the way for new approaches to track the effectiveness of such programs.

September: First Post-Graduate Fellows arrive at IHME. Fellows have since come from numerous countries, including Kenya, Nepal, and Brazil. Past fellows continue their public health work in positions including research associate at the Japanese International Cooperation Agency's Research Institute, professor of community medicine in Sri Lanka, and senior technical advisor to Botswana’s ministry of health.

July: The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) launches with the goal of providing an impartial, evidence-based picture of global health trends to inform the work of policymakers, researchers, and funders. Main supporters are the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the state of Washington.