Christopher J. L. Murray

Christopher J. L. Murray is the Richard Saltonstall professor of public policy, professor of social medicine, and director of the Harvard Initiative for Global Health. Prior to his return to the university, for five years he led the World Health Organization's Evidence and Information for Policy Cluster, which was dedicated to building the evidence base and fostering a culture of evidence to inform health decision making. The cluster was responsible for work on epidemiology and the burden of disease, the World Health Survey, cost-effectiveness analysis, national health accounts, catastrophic health spending, responsiveness, health financing policy, human resources for health systems, coverage of health interventions, quality of care and patient safety, stewardship of health systems, assessment of health system performance, health research policy, and a range of efforts to manage and disseminate information through print and the Web.

A physician and health economist, Dr. Murray's early work focused on tuberculosis control and the development with Alan D. Lopez of global burden of disease methods and applications. During the course of this work, they developed a new metric for comparing deaths and disabilities caused by various diseases and the contribution of risk factors to the overall burden of disease in developing and developed countries. This pioneering effort has been hailed as a major landmark in public health and an important foundation for policy formulation and priority setting.

Recently, Dr. Murray has contributed to the development of a range of new methods and empirical studies for strengthening the basis for population health measurement and cost-effectiveness analysis. A main thrust of his work has been the conceptualization, measurement, and application of approaches to understanding the inputs, organization, outputs, and outcomes of health systems. He has authored or edited eight books, many book chapters, and more than 90 journal articles in internationally peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Murray holds a B.A. from Harvard College , a D. Phil. from Oxford University , and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School .