Current Events

Gates gives $105m to study public-health programs

According to the Wall Street Journal (“Gates Grant Targets Health Gauges“), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated $105 million to the University of Washington to establish an institute to measure the impact of public-health programs. The new institute which will be created will focus on quantitative measures of health and will be headed by Christopher Murray.

The institute’s missions will include collecting and analyzing data on health trends, such as the prevalence of major diseases and the availability of health services, as well as conducting independent evaluations of the effectiveness of health programs…

Institute officials pointed to the dearth of available statistics in global health, contrasting that to business, which runs on clear results. “It would seem strange that we would need an institute like this,” Dr. Murray said. But in public health, “we’re so far behind the norm in other sectors.”