The Lancet medical journal dedicated its December 15 edition to the publication of the global burden of disease (GBD2010) study carried out in 2010.
The five-year collaborative effort was launched in 2007, involving 486 scientists from 302 institutions in 50 countries from across the globe. The exercise involved seven consortia of partners: Harvard University, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, Johns Hopkins University, University of Queensland, Imperial College, London, the University of Tokyo and the World Health Organization. Overall, the exercise produced a comprehensive list of diseases and risk factors affecting over 6 billion inhabitants of this planet in 2010. The result of this exercise could best be described as an extraordinary human achievement looking at the mathematical, statistical and computing complexities of the processes and procedures involved, let alone the management of so many scientists and institutions.
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