If the United States spends more on health care than any other nation, why isn’t our health care system venerated as the best in the world?

It’s questions like these that inspire the work of Dr. Christopher J. L. Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington and professor of global health at the UW School of Medicine and School of Public Health and Community Medicine.

Murray tackled such complex topics during his presentation at the 2007 Distinguished Faculty Lecture in October. That program premieres on UWTV in January.

Murray came to UW in May to head up the IHME, a new research center that will evaluate the effectiveness of health programs worldwide.

IHME is supported by a $105 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and $20 million from the UW. The institute will monitor global health conditions and evaluate heath care programs worldwide while widely disseminating health information. It is expected to play a major role in meeting such targets as the Millennium Development Goals, which call for substantial global health reforms by 2015.

Murray’s first opportunity to analyze a health care system outside the United States came early on. At the age of 12, his family spent a year running a hospital in Diffa, Niger. His father, a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, oversaw the hospital. As a pre-teen, Murray operated the pharmacy and his brother took charge of the laboratory and served as their father’s surgical assistant. Murray’s mother ran the inpatient wing and organized its nursing staff with help from his sister.

This early experience undoubtedly influenced his life’s work as a physician and health economist. Murray served as the executive director of the Evidence and Information for Policy Cluster at the World Health Organization from 1998 to 2003 before his most recent position as director of the Harvard University Initiative for Global Health.
The decision to join UW’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation came easily to Murray.

“It’s a combination of being a fantastic opportunity to start a new institute devoted to (global health metrics and evaluation) and being in Seattle,” he said.

Murray is finding his move to the Northwest an enjoyable one; he is enjoying both the campus climate of UW, as well as Seattle.

His work here is already off to a fine start. The institute released its first joint study on child mortality in September, conducted with the University of Queensland and WHO. Currently, the nascent facility includes a staff of about 30; recruitment and expansion will continue to climb to an anticipated 100 faculty and staff members. Staff is operating out of the Eastlake area until February when the institute will move to its new digs at Fifth Avenue and Bell Street in Belltown.

Murray gives a glimpse into the fascinating work of IHME in his October Distinguished Faculty Lecture.

One of the most surprising topics of the lecture for those not well versed in global health, he says, is the staggering disparity between U.S. health care spending and the end result.

“The United States spends the most of any country on health care by far, yet we’re ranked 30th to 40th in the world in terms of quality of public health,” Murray said.

It is estimated that U.S. health care spending is 15 percent of its gross domestic product, higher than any nation in the world. Yet the overall health care performance of the United States ranks 37th, according to WHO, which also places the overall health of Americans at 72nd among 191 nations assessed.