Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors 2010 Study: advancements, results, and implications
Synopsis
Collaborators on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2010 Study are in the final phases of completing a four-year effort to produce comparable estimates of the burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors for the years 1990, 2005, and 2010. This project has drawn upon the efforts of a multitude of people, including more than 800 condition-specific experts from around the world. The result has been the largest review of epidemiological data sources relevant to burden of disease and a vastly expanded evidence base.
GBD studies for 1990 and 2000 examined 108 diseases and causes in eight regions and 170 diseases and causes in 14 regions, respectively. The GBD 2010 Study expands the scope much further to more than 200 conditions and more than 40 risk factors in 21 regions. At the same time, estimation methods have been improved significantly.
Noteworthy advancements include: using population-level surveys to help derive health state severity weights; using highly advanced published methods to establish mortality by age and sex; and radically improving the modeling techniques used for estimating incidence, prevalence, and causes of death.
The seminar will present preliminary results and highlight some of the noteworthy methodological advancements that were applied in the study.
Bio
Christopher J.L. Murray, MD, DPhil, is the Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and Professor of Global Health at the University of Washington. A physician and health economist, Dr. Murray is widely regarded as one of the founders of modern population health measurement, and his work has helped shape public policy in countries around the world.
Dr. Murray created the concept of the Global Burden of Disease with Dr. Alan Lopez while working as a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. He served as the Executive Director of the World Health Organization’s Evidence and Information for Policy Cluster, where he pioneered the groundbreaking World Health Report 2000, in collaboration with Dr. Julio Frenk. Dr. Murray played a key role in the creation of the 1993 World Development Report, considered a touchstone for all subsequent attempts to study the effects of health policy and health investment on health outcomes.
He returned to Harvard to help launch the Harvard Initiative for Global Health (now the Harvard Institute for Global Health) as its first director. Dr. Murray’s work has been cited more than 27,000 times by other researchers in published articles. He holds Bachelor of Arts and Science degrees from Harvard University, a DPhil from Oxford University, and a medical degree from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Murray and Dr. Frenk founded IHME in 2007.
By measuring health, tracking program performance, finding ways to maximize health system impact, and developing innovative measurement systems, IHME provides a foundation for informed decision-making that ultimately will lead to better health globally.
