Epic Measures: One Doctor. Seven Billion Patients.

[Read by Patrick Lawlor] ''Moneyball'' meets medicine in this remarkable chronicle of the great scientific quests to answer the most essential question of our time: How do we live and die? Medical doctor and economist Christopher Murray began the Global Burden of Disease studies to gain a truer understanding of how we live and how we die. While it is one of the largest scientific projects ever attempted -- as breathtaking as the first moon landing or the Human Genome Project -- the questions it answers are meaningful for every one of us: What are the world's health problems? Who do they hurt? How much? Where? Why? Murray argues that the ideal existence isn't simply the longest but the one lived well and with the least illness. Until we can accurately measure how people live and die, we cannot understand what makes us sick or do much to improve it. Challenging the accepted wisdom of the World Health Organization and the United Nations, the charismatic and controversial health maverick has made enemies -- and some influential friends, including Bill Gates, who gave Murray a $100 million grant. In Epic Measures, journalist Jeremy N. Smith offers an intimate look at Murray and his groundbreaking work. From ranking countries' healthcare systems (the United States is thirty-seventh) to unearthing the shocking reality that world governments are funding developing countries at only 30% of the potential maximum efficiency when it comes to health, Epic Measures introduces a visionary leader whose unwavering determination to improve global health standards has already changed the way the world addresses issues of health and wellness, sets policy, and distributes funding.