The UHN community is saddened to hear of the passing of Dr. Murray Krahn, Senior Scientist at TGHRI and founding Director of the Toronto Health Economics and Technology Assessment (THETA) Collaborative. Based at UHN, THETA provides informed decision support to health technology policy makers, such as the Government of Ontario, and advances the science of health technology assessment.
Murray was a world renowned researcher in health technology assessment (HTA), and his research program applied innovative decision analysis and economic evaluation methods to broad questions of health and clinical policy in content areas such as prostate cancer and viral hepatitis. Throughout his distinguished career, Murray was an international asset in HTA, and served leadership roles on the Society of Medical Decision Making (SMDM), Ontario Health Technology Advisory Committee, and the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH)—Canada’s national HTA agency—among many others. For this work, he was recognized with several prestigious awards such as a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Health Technology Assessment, CADTH’s Dr. Jill M. Sanders Award of Excellence in Health Technology Assessment, and the SMDM’s Career Achievement Award.
He will be remembered most, however, for championing the importance of HTA through his dedication to training and mentoring the next generation of students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-career researchers.
Murray’s legacy will live on through THETA’s continued delivery of high-quality, scientific evaluation of health technologies—towards improving the effectiveness of health systems around the world.