Using a $105 million gift from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the University of Washington, Seattle, has created the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). "How do we know the investments in global health we're making are having the impact we want?" asks health economist Christopher Murray, who will head a staff of 130.
Murray is moving to Seattle from Harvard because billionaire Larry Ellison rescinded his pledge of $115 million to create a similar institute when university president Lawrence Summers resigned. "I'm deeply unhappy that we lost Chris," says Barry Bloom, dean of Harvard's School of Public Health. "One needs health metrics to hold countries accountable for the health of their people. That's what he does, and he does it better than anyone else."
Murray contends that policymakers--especially in developing countries--need better data on mortality, immunization rates, and disease burdens. IHME will train graduate students and issue reports that evaluate specific programs funded by the Gates Foundation and other new players in the global health arena as well as the flow of aid.
