July 2007: 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.
September 2008: 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.
December 2008: 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.
April 2009: 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.
July 2009: 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.
September 2009: 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.
April 2010: “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.
June 2010: 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.
March 2011: 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 2011: IHME’s initial US county-level life expectancy work is published in Population Health Metrics, showing that the US is falling behind other countries.
October 2011: The results of IHME’s assessment of Avahan, an HIV-prevention program in India, appear in The Lancet.
May 2012: 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.
September 2012: 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.
December 2012: 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.
March 2013: 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.
June 2013: 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.
July 2013: 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.
September 2013: 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.
November 2013: The Roux Prize is launched to reward use of Global Burden of Disease evidence to improve health.