Featuring
Jeremy Smith
Journalist and author of Epic Measures
Hosts
Amanda Glassman
VP for Programs, Director of Global Health Policy and Senior Fellow
Center for Global Development
Keith Martin
Executive Director
Consortium of Universities for Global Health
Only 35 percent of deaths worldwide are recorded in death certificates. This has led to a major problem: if we don’t know what health threats cause the most suffering, how are we supposed to know what actions to take to prevent sickness and death? Over the last two decades, physician and economist Christopher Murray and his colleagues have set out to solve this problem through the Global Burden of Disease study. In Epic Measures: One Doctor, Seven Billion Patients, journalist Jeremy Smith chronicles how the Global Burden of Disease study came into being—and what it can tell us already.
In this talk, Smith shared highlights from the true story of the 20-year, 500-scientist, $100-million moonshot attempt to track and quantify every illness, injury, and death for everyone on Earth: the biggest of Big Data ever. He also discussed how Murray’s project is beginning to change how the world addresses issues of health and wellness, sets policy, and distributes funding.
Smith’s book has received praise from the New York Times, Wired, The Los Angeles Review of Books and global health experts, including Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health. If you purchase the book in advance, Smith will be happy to sign it.
