IHME experts speak

Although the attention of the world and the global health community specifically is deservedly focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, other determinants of health continue to have large impacts and may also interact with COVID-19. Air pollution is one crucial example. 

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Life is like a parachute jump; you’ve got to get it right the first time.” With a spate of Covid-19 vaccines on the horizon, we must prepare to jump.

Since March, federal agencies have been collecting a trove of information. But they refuse to release most of it.

GBD 2019 incorporates data from 281 586 sources and provides more than 3·5 billion estimates of health outcome and health system measures of interest for global, national, and subnational policy dialogue. From this vast amount of information, five key insights that are important for health, social, and economic development strategies have been distilled.

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) introduces Think Global Health, a multi-contributor website that examines how changes in health are reshaping economies, societies, and the everyday lives of people around the world.

Regular monitoring of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals is important for fostering a shared notion of accountability for results, identifying important gaps in resources and rates of progress, and taking into account emerging challenges that can influence the trajectory of progress.

Hans Rosling — a Swedish doctor, statistician, author and professor — will be a name associated with the University of Washington’s transformative work in population health. Today, the UW Board of Regents approved naming the $230 million building under construction on UW’s Seattle campus the Hans Rosling Center for Population Health.

The decline in child mortality over the past two decades has been described as the greatest story in global public health. Indeed, using modern tools and interventions, there has been remarkable progress, reducing deaths in children <5 y of age by nearly half from 2000 to 2017.

Large-scale analysis of 49 countries in Africa shows improvements in the prevalence of babies under 6 months of age being fed only breast milk, but there are large disparities in progress across and within countries.

In 2015, member states of the United Nations adopted the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which included 17 global goals that targeted economic and social development. Goal 3, “to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages,” targets specifically marked progress in universal health coverage; improved access to safe, effective, and affordable medicines; and the end of the HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis epidemics by 2030. Although these goals can spur innovation, social and political commitment, and a drive to achieve greater health gains for less money, financial support is necessary to achieve them. 

The Lancet details the Roux Prize award winner for 2018, Dr. Cynthia Maung. Dr. Maung and her staff at the Mae Tao Clinic on the border of Thailand and Myanmar have collected data over the years to identify what is driving people's illnesses, disabilities, and injuries and how to improve delivery of care.

Last week, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation published two studies revealing health and education disparities on the African continent. What is significant about these studies is not only the results, but also the process that was used to arrive at them, known as “precision mapping.” With the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, IHME is mapping a range of global health metrics using 5x5 kilometer units.

Progress in the fight against hunger is patchy. New tools must target action to those who are most vulnerable, says Kofi Annan.

This year's Roux Prize was awarded to Samba Sow for using health data to save children's lives through a comprehensive vaccination programme. Andrew Green with The Lancet reports.

Trevor Mundel, President of Global Health at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, discusses his experience at the Global Burden of Disease 20th Anniversary Symposium. 

The Lancet Infectious Diseases profiles IHME Director of Geospatial Science Dr. Simon Hays. 

Goalkeepers: The Stories Behind the Data is the foundation’s first annual progress report on the SDGs and was produced in partnership with IHME. The Gates’ Goalkeepers report

Rheumatic heart disease ranks as one of the most serious cardiovascular scourges of the past century.  As a result of improvements in living conditions and the introduction of penicillin, the disease was almost eradicated in the developed world by the 1980s. However, it remains a force to be reckoned with in the developing world, as demonstrated by an assessment from the 2015 Global Burden of Disease study (GBD 2015), painstakingly performed by Watkins and colleagues and reported in this issue of the Journal.