Gates Foundation Gives $105-Million to U. of Washington

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in Seattle, has given $105-million to the University of Washington to establish a health metrics institute, reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

“Very simply, health metrics is about figuring out what works and what doesn’t work,” said Christopher Murray, director of the new institute and a health economist formerly at Harvard University and the World Health Organization.

Mr. Murray said that today many global-health efforts supported by foundations and governments are based on hope rather than a rational analysis of the problem and evaluation of progress.

He noted that the financing of the institute by the Gates Foundation could cause concern that the research will not be critical of that grant maker’s global-health efforts. But he said, “That’s why we’re locating the institute at a world-class university with an independent advisory board.” He added: “Universities are social institutions designed to provide for doing the kind of work that is sometimes inconvenient to powerful people.”