UW School of Pharmacy Professor Emeritus Lou Garrison was named a Change Agent in the 2017 PharmaVOICE 100 honorees. A global thought leader and teacher in the field of health economics and outcomes research, Lou is committed to advancing how healthcare decisions are made both in the United States and globally.
Lou retired from full-time teaching for UWSOP’s the Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy Program in 2016, but has remained very active in the pharmacoeconomics community. After working as an economist in the pharmaceutical industry for 12 years, including as VP and head of health economics and strategic pricing for Roche Pharmaceuticals, he made the transition to academia where he has inspired thousands of individuals.
Since 2004, Dr. Garrison has served as a professor and as a pivotal member of the University of Washington (UW) School of Pharmacy’s Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Research Policy Program (PORPP).
Most recently, Lou served as President for the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR), the leading global, scientific and educational society for the advancement of health economics and outcomes research and their use in decision making to improve health, which he describes as a career highlight. ISPOR’s members promote health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) excellence to improve decision-making for health globally.
One of Lou’s recent efforts has been initiating and co-chairing the association’s initiative on U.S. value assessment frameworks, which is tackling the problem of defining and measuring the value of treatments from a multi-stakeholder perspective in the U.S. healthcare system.
“I feel very fortunate to have traveled the globe to meet with government and industry leaders who are interested in health economics and outcomes research” said Lou, “to have made many presentations at professional meetings, and to have taught thousands in health economics workshops and ISPOR short courses.
He plans to continue to work on a wide range of topics and issues related to global health economics with a focus on trying to improve access to medicines in low- and middle-income countries while creating appropriate incentives for innovation globally.
As part of his commitment to the field of HEOR, Lou and his wife, Fran, have established three funds: the Garrison Family Fund for Global Health Economics Education; the Louis Sr. and Marilyn Garrison Endowed Prize in Health Policy and Economics, honoring Lou’s parents; and the Penny Evans Fund for the UW ISPOR Student Chapter, here at the UWSOP.
“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 ISPOR. Lou is an extraordinary teacher, mentor, colleague and economist and has mentored hundreds of preeminent students over his years on our faculty,” said UWSOP Dean Sean D. Sullivan.
His passionate leadership style and contributions to the field are respected among the many communities in which he is involved, and his impact extends beyond these organizations through those he empowers with the knowledge needed to advance healthcare.
Lou seeks to inspire his colleagues, association members, and students through hard work and a commitment to honest, excellent science. He measures success by the success that the students and colleagues who he has mentored have achieved, many of whom have become lifelong friends and collaborators. He has a special interest in supporting research and development of healthcare systems in Africa and has mentored students and academicians throughout the continent.
While Dr. Garrison has authored more than 100 publications, and considers his students to be his greatest legacy. He would like to be remembered as someone who promoted both efficiency and equity — with the former in service of the latter.
In 2016, the University of Washington School of Pharmacy honored him by hosting a PORPP 20th Anniversary Research Symposium in his name. Pharmacoeconomists from around the world traveled to Seattle to celebrate Dr. Garrison’s lifetime achievements. But this well-respected and inspirational leader is far from done; industry, nonprofit, and academic partners continue to seek his expert insights on the value of new healthcare technologies.
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