Epic Measures is a fantastic read.” — Bill Gates
“Jeremy Smith’s engaging story of a man obsessed with the numbers, and the mortal dramas they tell, reads like a novel and is better than any textbook or survey of this planet’s health.” — Paul Farmer, Co-Founder of Partners In Health and Co-Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School
“Epic Measures is a story of people who believed…that what needed to be done could be done. It’s exciting, well-crafted, and inspirational. Like The Social Network but actually important. Saving a million lives isn’t cool. Y’know what’s cool? Saving a billion lives.” — Hank Green, co-creator and co-host of Crash Course and SciShow
“Jeremy Smith tells an inspiring story of how a simple idea, conceived logically and pursued with grit, can greatly improve the human condition.” — Edward O. Wilson, University Professor Emeritus, Harvard University
“This book is a crash course in global health mixed with a thriller and a biography. And my goodness, what a made-for-Hollywood character at its core—a brilliant but bristly scientist out to revolutionize the way we conceive healthcare.” — A. J. Jacobs, author of Drop Dead Healthy and The Year of Living Biblically
“Reading Epic Measures is like spending time with Chris Murray—an intense intellectual treat, the sense of participating in something important, and the thrill of a riveting adventure. For more realism, I recommend reading this book while biking up or skiing down a terrifyingly steep mountain slope.” — Gary King, Director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University
“Bold, brash, and brilliant…. In Epic Measures, Jeremy Smith tells a compelling story of the man who led a group of like-minded collaborators, inspired a legion of followers, irritated the establishment, and changed the way the world thinks about health and disease.” — Harvey V. Fineberg, President, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
“The Global Burden of Disease Study is not only an epic dataset, but also an epic human story…. Through fine reporting and graceful writing, Jeremy Smith reveals the high-stakes story behind the numbers that are transforming global health. — Michelle Nijhuis, co-editor of The Science Writers’ Handbook
“Remarkably entertaining... A giant compilation of ‘who knew?’” — Tina Rosenberg, The New York Times Opinionator
“In public health it is said that what is measured gets done. But what if the measurements were all wrong? This book should be mandatory reading. While others on the beach may have been reading mysteries, I was turning the pages of a true thriller.” — Richard E. Besser, M.D., Chief Health and Medical Editor, ABC News
“We’ve all heard about the rise of Big Data and how it will have big effects. Well, this is the ultimate Big Data project and it could indeed save lives and money-big time!” — Fareed Zakaria, CNN
“A thumping narrative about trends shaping the future.” — Aaron Shulman, The Los Angeles Review of Books
“An inspirational tale for everyone.” — Publishers Weekly
“A fascinating account of a charismatic visionary.” — Kirkus Reviews
“A page-turner that could radically change the way you view health.” — Joy Portella, President, Minerva Strategies
Bold, brash, and brilliant…. In Epic Measures, Jeremy Smith tells a compelling story of the man who led a group of like-minded collaborators, inspired a legion of followers, irritated the establishment, and changed the way the world thinks about health and disease.
Jeremy Smith tells an inspiring story of how a simple idea, conceived logically and pursued with grit, can greatly improve the human condition.
A thumping narrative about trends shaping the future.
We’ve all heard about the rise of Big Data and how it will have big effects. Well, this is the ultimate Big Data project and it could indeed save lives and money-big time!
A page-turner that could radically change the way you view health.
Epic Measures is a story of people who believed…that what needed to be done could be done. It’s exciting, well-crafted, and inspirational. Like The Social Network but actually important. Saving a million lives isn’t cool. Y’know what’s cool? Saving a billion lives.
In public health it is said that what is measured gets done. But what if the measurements were all wrong? This book should be mandatory reading. While others on the beach may have been reading mysteries, I was turning the pages of a true thriller.
The Global Burden of Disease Study is not only an epic dataset, but also an epic human story…. Through fine reporting and graceful writing, Jeremy Smith reveals the high-stakes story behind the numbers that are transforming global health.
This book is a crash course in global health mixed with a thriller and a biography. And my goodness, what a made-for-Hollywood character at its core—a brilliant but bristly scientist out to revolutionize the way we conceive healthcare.
Epic Measures is a fantastic read.
Jeremy Smith’s engaging story of a man obsessed with the numbers, and the mortal dramas they tell, reads like a novel and is better than any textbook or survey of this planet’s health.
Remarkably entertaining... A giant compilation of ‘who knew?’
Reading Epic Measures is like spending time with Chris Murray—an intense intellectual treat, the sense of participating in something important, and the thrill of a riveting adventure. For more realism, I recommend reading this book while biking up or skiing down a terrifyingly steep mountain slope.
02/16/2015
Science writer Smith (Growing a Garden City) deftly blends the biography of remarkable doctor and economist Christopher Murray with a history of his greatest public health project: the Global Burden of Disease studies that chart “the entire burden of disease for every place and every person on Earth.” Smith notes the life events that put Murray on the path to his groundbreaking study: a childhood fascination with maps; family travels to Africa, where his parents ran a small hospital; a stellar academic career at Harvard; a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford; a bitter experience at the World Health Organization; and a lifelong collaboration with health statistician Alan Lopez on creating the Global Burden formula and conducting fascinating studies. Funding from billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates helped launch the Global Burden project, and in 2012, a successful “prepublication presentation” was made in Seattle. Smith’s thoughtful, data-dense material is ideal for students of public health policy, who will appreciate why one public health specialist called Murray and Lopez’s work “epic squared,” but he also makes Murray’s relentless search for a way to understand the human health condition into an inspirational tale for everyone. Agent: Michelle Tessler, Tessler Literary Agency. (Apr.)
Bold, brash, and brilliant…. In Epic Measures, Jeremy Smith tells a compelling story of the man who led a group of like-minded collaborators, inspired a legion of followers, irritated the establishment, and changed the way the world thinks about health and disease.
2015-01-04
Smith (Growing a Garden City, 2010) a freelance journalist who covers health and environmental issues for Discover, the Chicago Tribune and other leading publications, chronicles an ambitious project to collect comparative data on global health issues.In 2013, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation—sponsored and funded by the Gates Foundation—issued its groundbreaking report on world health, The Global Burden of Disease, a "meticulous decades-long creation…measuring the impact of 235 causes of death, 289 diseases and injuries, and 67 risk factors for men and women in 20 age groups." The author compares the study to the Human Genome Project in its scope and potential benefits, and he identifies the impacts of health issues and available treatments on the duration and quality of life. Smith profiles the vision of director Christopher Murray, a man with a powerful desire to revolutionize the treatment of health on a global scale. Murray's passion began with summers spent assisting his parents in the operation of a mobile hospital in the African desert. Smith's formal education in health issues began in the 1980s, when he studied biology at Harvard and earned a medical degree. He also received a doctorate in international health economics from Oxford. In 1998, he became the director of a short-lived World Health Organization project to issue an independent, evidence-based report on world health, a report that was a predecessor of the 2013 study. Murray was struck by the conflicting data from international health agencies on global life expectancy, infant mortality, the incidence of chronic disease and more. The boy who had seen poverty firsthand in Africa became a man with a mission "to measure how we sicken and die in order to improve how we live." A fascinating account of a charismatic visionary who successfully battles the convoluted politics of international health bureaucracies.
