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Lou Garrison to retire from UW School of Pharmacy

Lou Garrison
Lou Garrison

UWSOP Dean Sean D. Sullivan announced Dr. Lou Garrison’s retirement from the UW School of Pharmacy’s Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Research Policy Program (PORPP) effective July 1, 2016. “Lou has been a pivotal member of the PORPP faculty and will continue to be a world-class thought leader in health economics as President of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics Outcomes and Research (ISPOR). Lou is an extraordinary teacher, mentor, colleague and economist and we are so grateful for his years of service to the UW. He’s been key to the growth of the program and has mentored hundreds of preeminent students over his years on our faculty,” said Dean Sullivan.

Lou came to UW in 2004 with a joint appointment as Associate Director and Professor in PORPP in the Department of Pharmacy and Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Global Health and Health Services in the School of Public Health. In 2013, he completed a sabbatical as Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Office of Health Economics in London. In 2014, he graciously served as Interim Director of PORPP while a national search was run to fill the post.

In the 12 years before joining UW, he worked as an economist in the pharmaceutical industry. From 2002 to 2004, he was vice president and head of health economics and strategic pricing at Roche Pharmaceuticals in Basel, Switzerland and oversaw the development of the economic and pricing strategies, and research plans for all Roche compounds. Prior to this, he was director of the Project HOPE Center for Health Affairs, where he worked on a wide variety of health policy issues, including studies of healthcare reform in the U.S. and overseas. Before this, he worked at the Battelle Human Affairs Research Centers in Seattle, where he carried out studies of the adequacy of physician manpower supply and the cost-effectiveness of kidney and heart transplantation.

His research interests include national and international health policy issues related to pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine, regulatory benefit-risk analysis, insurance, pricing, reimbursement, and risk-sharing agreements, as well as the economic evaluation of pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, devices, surgical procedures, and vaccines, particularly as related to organ transplantation, renal disease, influenza, measles, obesity, and cancer.

Lou’s deep commitment to the UW and our students is shown through two funds he and his family have created to support a leading-edge student experience: Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy Program (PORPP) Endowed Prize in Health Policy and Economics and the newly established Garrison Family Fund for Global Health Economics Education. The Prize in Health Policy and Economics provides financial assistance to inspire PORPP graduate to study and excel in the fields of health policy and economics. To ensure the future of global health economics education, the Garrison Family Fund supports a wide range of global health education activities in the UW School of Pharmacy including: student and faculty travel for global health economics education, workshops and trainings.

We thank Lou for his dedicated service and in wishing him the best in his next evolution as a leader in health care.

Advance your career in health care economics research at the University of Washington. Learn more about our Graduate Programs in Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy

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