The CHOICE Institute — formerly known as the Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy Program (PORPP) — is hosted within the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Washington. What began as a quietly ambitious idea in 1990 has grown into one of the world’s leading centers for health economics and outcomes research (HEOR).
The Founding Vision (1989–1994)
In 1989, Dr. Andy Stergachis was recruited from Group Health’s Center for Health Studies by then-Dean Milo Gibaldi to join the UW Department of Pharmacy Practice. Drawing on his background in pharmacy and public health, Stergachis saw an opportunity to anchor rigorous graduate training in applied pharmaceutical outcomes research. In 1990, he began laying the groundwork for what would become PORPP, envisioning a program where science would be in service of policy — and of people. In 1991, he recruited Dr. Sean D. Sullivan, a newly-minted PhD health economist from UC Berkeley, to lead outcomes research and policy work, alongside epidemiologist Dr. Jackie Gardner. Together, they formed the nucleus of a program committed to asking better questions about value in healthcare — and training people to answer them.
Establishing PORPP (1995–2013)
By 1995, the team had attracted additional top scholars and built the funding and institutional support needed to formally establish the Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy Program (PORPP) and launch a new graduate program. The first PhD cohort entered in 1996. PORPP quickly became a launchpad for policy-influencing scientists, with faculty including Lou Garrison, Beth Devine, Dave Veenstra, Josh Carlson, Ryan Hansen, and Aasthaa Bansal producing work that shaped real-world access, pricing, and healthcare regulation. Key partnerships formed with the UW Department of Health Services, the Hutchinson Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research, Group Health Research Institute, the CHASE Alliance, and Premera Blue Cross, providing extraordinary opportunities for collaboration, data sharing, and joint faculty appointments.
In 2012, Andy and JoAnn Stergachis established the Stergachis Family Endowed Directorship of PORPP, ensuring the program would be led by a dynamic, internationally recognized director.
New Leadership and a New Identity (2014–2017)
In 2014, Dr. Sullivan was appointed Dean of the UW School of Pharmacy, and a national search for his successor began. In May 2015, Professor Anirban Basu, PhD was appointed as the new Stergachis Family Endowed Director. Under his leadership, the program’s growing scope — spanning vaccines, Alzheimer’s research, health insurance, and machine learning — called for a broader identity. In 2017, PORPP officially became The Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy, and Economics (CHOICE) Institute, gaining official university institute status and unlocking expanded institutional support.
CHOICE Today (2018–present)
The Institute continued to grow with the addition of faculty Douglas Barthold, Jing Li, Kyu Lee, Noémi Kreif, Clayton English, and Laura Hart, each bringing new methodological depth and research perspectives. Today, CHOICE engages 12 core faculty along with numerous adjunct and affiliate faculty from UW, industry, and peer institutions worldwide. Since 1995, the Institute has trained over 35 postdoctoral fellows, 90 master’s students, 85 PhD students, and more than 600 certificate students. Seven of the 30 ISPOR presidents have come from CHOICE — a testament to a culture of excellence decades in the making.
Read the full story of CHOICE’s first 30 years: Three Decades of CHOICE: Honoring the Past, Shaping the Future