In addition to its core research, IHME leads a number of special research projects focusing on the Global Burden of Disease, health resource allocation, malaria control, and population health measurement and evaluation. IHME is collaborating with hundreds of public health experts and researchers around the world on these projects.

Disease Control Priorities Network (DCPN)

The goal of DCPN is to improve how health resources are allocated in countries by producing estimates of the costs and cost effectiveness of interventions and health service delivery platforms.

Disease Expenditure (DEX)

Surprisingly little is known about how resources are spent on US health care. Most government and academic research focuses on a single payer, age group, or set of health conditions. Reconciling how health care spending varies across health condition, age and sex group, type of care, and time can help health system researchers and policymakers identify the drivers of spending increases. Health burden can only be properly addressed if resources, technology, and innovation are allocated with an in-depth understanding of the current health spending landscape.

Geospatial Analysis

IHME is using geospatial analysis techniques to improve the spatial resolution at which we map diseases globally. This work aims to provide an ever more spatially resolved evidence base to empower donors and policymakers to make better decisions about allocating funds and prioritizing interventions. 

Global Burden of Disease (GBD)

GBD is the most comprehensive effort to date to measure epidemiological levels and trends worldwide. It is the product of a global research collaborative and quantifies the impact of hundreds of diseases, injuries, and risk factors in countries around the world.

HealthRise

IHME is partnering with Medtronic Philanthropy to evaluate a program to improve heart disease and diabetes care for underserved populations.

Improving Methods to Measure Comparable Mortality by Cause

To provide critical information for planning government facilities, policies, and interventions, IHME is working with collaborators in four countries to improve the understanding of leading causes of death in areas with poor or nonexistent vital registration systems.

Salud Mesoamérica Initiative (SMI)

IHME works closely with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to collect data and conduct analysis to evaluate the impact of the Salud Mesoamérica Initiative. This results-based aid initiative mechanism focuses on reducing inequalities in maternal and child health across Mesoamerica.

State-level disease burden initiative in India

In order to improve health programs and planning in India, The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is partnering with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) – in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India – to generate subnational disease burden and risk factor estimates. With support from the World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, IHME, ICMR, and PHFI will work together over the next few years to provide a disease burden analysis, by age and gender, over time, for hundreds of diseases, injuries, and risk factors for each of India’s states.

University of Washington Center for Health Trends and Forecasts

The University of Washington Center for Health Trends and Forecasts, housed at IHME, joins 11 other National Institute on Aging (NIA) Demography Centers at leading universities and policy organizations around the United States. The NIA established these Centers to foster research in demography, economics, and epidemiology of aging and to promote the use of important datasets in the field.

US Counties Drivers of Health Study

The US Counties Drivers of Health Study aims to measure health performance across counties in the United States and increase our understanding of what drives these outcomes within 24 counties. This work encompasses two separate research components, the Women’s Life Expectancy Study and the County Health Status Study.

Verbal Autopsy (VA)

Verbal autopsy (VA) is a method of determining individuals’ causes of death and cause-specific mortality fractions in populations without a complete vital registration system. Verbal autopsies consist of a trained interviewer using a questionnaire to collect information about the signs, symptoms, and demographic characteristics of a recently deceased person from an individual familiar with the deceased.

Completed Projects

Assessment of Global Tobacco Control Priorities

IHME researchers are evaluating how different combinations of tobacco control policies and intervention packages result in reduced tobacco use and improved health outcomes throughout the world. 

Better data for better health in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The Ministry of Health (MOH) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and IHME are partnering to develop a world-class integrated surveillance and burden of disease monitoring system.

Gavi Full Country Evaluations

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership that funds and improves access to vaccination in the world’s poorest countries. Gavi selected IHME to lead a prospective evaluation of its immunization programs in Bangladesh, India, Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia.

Malaria Control Policy Assessment (MCPA)

IHME is evaluating the contribution of malaria control interventions to the reductions in under-5 mortality in Zambia and Uganda by producing and analyzing subnational estimates of intervention coverage.

Monitoring Disparities in Chronic Conditions Study: The MDCC Study

This project explores disparities in chronic disease among US communities by designing a cost-effective and easily scalable data collection system to track such diseases and their accompanying risk factors using multiple data sources.

Population Health Metrics Research Consortium (PHMRC)

IHME, working in close collaboration with research organizations in four countries, has developed methods to measure mortality, causes of death, and incidence of major illnesses where data are incomplete.

Population Health Metrics Research Consortium (PHMRC) Mexico Study

The goal of the PHMRC Mexico Study was to offer better instruments and methods to countries for measuring population health where cause of death coding and information on disease prevalence is incomplete or inadequate. As part of the study, IHME pioneered new ways to collect cause of death information through verbal autopsies.

Quantitative analysis of feasibility of achieving zero preventable child deaths

In support of USAID’s strategic plan in reducing child mortality with a view to achieving zero preventable child deaths, IHME conducted quantitative analyses.