If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Did you know that one man’s obsession led to the creation of a literal 'map' of every disease and injury known to humanity?
- Have you ever wondered why the world’s most powerful health organizations were looking at the wrong data for decades—and what it took to finally correct them?
- What if you could pinpoint exactly which diseases are stealing the most years of healthy life from people in any corner of the globe?
Listen to Epic Measures — Free Audiobook
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Key Takeaways from Epic Measures
- Discover why slapdash global health data historically hindered the proper allocation of medical funding and how one man set out to fix it.
- Learn how a childhood medical sabbatical in Africa taught Christopher Murray that careful analysis and tenacious research are critical skills in treating disease.
- Understand why relying solely on life expectancy and infant mortality rates creates a misleading picture of global health that completely ignores a patient's actual quality of life.
- Find out how siloed health organizations manipulated statistics to secure funding, resulting in a disastrous '10/90-gap' where 90 percent of global health problems received only 10 percent of research funds.
- Explore how shifting statistical focus to neglected adult diseases, like tuberculosis, helped secure targeted funding that quickly saved millions of lives.
Learning Tools
Reinforce what you learned from Epic Measures
Mind Map
Epic Measures
Flawed Legacy Health Data (1980s)
Misleading Metrics
Unscientific UN Methods
WHO Data Manipulation
Christopher Murray's Foundation
Childhood in Niger
Early Analytical Insights
The DALY & Global Burden of Disease
Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY)
Global Burden of Disease Study (1993)
Bureaucratic Backlash
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)
Founding & Resources
Focus on Root Causes
Public Accessibility
Core Takeaways
Holistic Health Strategy
Actionable Advice
Quiz — Test Your Understanding
Question 1 of 8
What crucial lesson about disease analysis did Christopher Murray learn during his childhood sabbatical at a hospital in Niger?
Epic Measures — Full Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: Recommendation
Chapter 2: Christopher Murray’s extraordinary childhood taught vital lessons in analyzing disease and providing effective treatment methods.
Chapter 3: In the 1980s, health bodies relied on flawed, unreliable methods to gauge global health.
Chapter 4: Health data was often skewed to justify ineffective programs and funding.
Chapter 5: Murray created a more reliable system to gauge global health, focusing on quality of life and years lost.
Chapter 6: Results from Murray’s study exposed neglected areas and attracted intense, widespread criticism and scorn.
Chapter 7: Forced out of the World Health Organization, Murray built a new institute to advance global health.
Chapter 8: Murray’s organization now releases updated, easily accessible editions of the Global Burden Study publicly.
Epic Measures Summary & Overview
Epic Measures (2015) tells the incredible story of how one man, Christopher Murray, came to build the most comprehensive medical study ever assembled. Find out what motivated Murray and his dedicated team of collaborators to build a worldwide map of every disease and illness known to man – and discover how his remarkable work has revolutionized the face of world health.
Who Should Listen to Epic Measures?
- Medical students
- Readers working in the health sector
- Humanitarians
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