9th Health Policy Colloquium - Beyond the Numbers: Challenges in Measuring Global Health

Beyond the Numbers: Challenges in Measuring Global Health

Are you interested in global health policies and social programs? Have you ever wondered how researchers determine whether a program designed to improve population health and well-being actually works? In this talk, Dr. Yingyi Lin will challenge some common assumptions in global health using examples from population research and relevant social programs. Through a series of real-world examples, attendees will be invited to guess answers, question conventional wisdom, and rethink what it means to measure success in global health. The talk will explore how policies are evaluated, how indicators are constructed and constrained, including those used to monitor progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and why some of our most widely used measures may overlook the very outcomes they seek to improve.

Dr. Yingyi Lin is an Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy and GIS at UT Dallas. She received her PhD in Population, Health, and Place from the University of Southern California (USC). Before joining UT Dallas, she served as a Research Scientist and later as a Senior Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (now the Gates Foundation). Dr. Lin studies demographic events across the life course, from birth to death, and their social implications. She has published extensively in leading demography journals, including Population and Development Review, Demography, Population Studies, Population Research and Policy Review, and Studies in Family Planning, as well as sociological journals such as Journal of Health and Social Behavior and Socius. Dr. Lin is the recipient of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) International Doctoral Fellowship and the USC PhD Achievement Award.