Improving the quality of the Global Burden of Disease tuberculosis estimates from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

This article examines the disparities between tuberculosis burden estimates provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). The authors emphasize the importance of clearer explanations and reproducibility of IHME's methods. They suggest enhancing comparisons and dialogue between IHME and WHO to better understand the differences in data and methodologies. The article also proposes considering method changes to incorporate country-specific data and addressing inconsistencies in epidemiological patterns. Additionally, the authors recommend exploring statistical smoothing in the estimates and utilizing covariates to capture changes in TB programs. The article further discusses the use of projection estimates by IHME for predicting future disease burden, particularly for TB. The authors recommend that IHME take into account programmatic changes for TB in their methodology and emphasize the need for stronger explanations of methods, comparisons, and dialogue with WHO, as well as improved communication with stakeholders. While acknowledging the value of both IHME and WHO estimates, the authors identify areas for improvement. [Extracted from the article]