The aim of this roundtable was to communicate research evidence to decision-makers and stakeholders, who influence health policy by presenting the results of the 2015 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, with a focus on the implications for Europe. The GBD research provides tools to quantify health loss from over 300 diseases, injuries and risk factors in 188 countries by age and sex, from 1999 to the present, allowing comparisons over time, across age groups and among populations. The roundtable provided an opportunity to discuss the most recent data and analyses available on the disease burden in Europe and fostered a debate between policy-makers from national and supranational institutions, staff at international organisations working on health data and civil society representatives.

Speakers included: William Heisel, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation of the University of Washington (leading the research consortium), and Heidi Larson, Director of European Initiatives at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and Associate Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The roundtable was chaired by Lieve Fransen, Senior Adviser at the EPC.