Williams, Alan H.

Alan H. Williams (1927–2005) was an eminent health economist in the United Kingdom. Williams was a professor of economics at the University of York. At York, he was instrumental in establishing the university's Centre for Health Economics and its graduate program in health economics. During his long and distinguished career, he studied two broad research areas: ways of valuing health and the equity of health and healthcare. Williams is perhaps best known as the originator of the concept of quality-adjusted life years, or QALYs, a measure of health benefits. Today, QALYs are widely used by researchers to measure and compare healthcare technology and treatments.

Williams was born in Birmingham, England, in 1927. He was educated at the Birmingham King Edward's School. After graduation in 1945, he served in the Royal Air Force for 3 years. In 1948, Williams attended the University of Birmingham, where he graduated in 1951 with a bachelor's degree in economics. He continued his education doing graduate work at the Universities of Uppsala and Stockholm. From 1954 to 1963, Williams was a lecturer in economics at the University of Exeter, where he taught courses in public finance. During sabbaticals he taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Princeton University. In 1964, he moved to the newly established University of York, where he was appointed a senior lecturer and reader in economics. Williams would teach and conduct research at that university for more than 40 years.

Besides his academic career, Williams also worked occasionally for the government. From 1966 to 1968, he was seconded (a temporary move or loan of an employee to another organization) to Her Majesty's Treasury as the director of economic studies. At the Treasury, he developed courses in economics for civil servants. He also worked with the Ministry of Health, where he investigated its hospital building program. In 1976, Williams was appointed to the Royal Commission on the National Health Service (NHS). However, in 1978, he resigned over a dispute on the role of researchers working for the commission.

In 1987, Williams convened a meeting in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, of his colleagues and challenged them to determine how the value of health might be measured and how such values might be studied across nations. The group eventually became the EuroQol Group, which developed the EQ-5D, a series of health status measures that are widely used throughout the world.

In his later years, Williams became increasingly interested in the ethical issues determining priorities in healthcare. He expounded the concept of “fair innings.” The concept reflects the general belief that everyone should achieve a long life and that if someone dies at a young age, the person is somehow cheated—death at 20 is clearly viewed very differently from death at 80. Williams argued that entitlement to healthcare ought to take into account such differences in perspectives. And more resources should be given to the young who have not had their fair innings.

Williams died in 2005 at the age of 77. In 2006, the University of York's Centre for Health Economics established the Alan Williams Health Economics Fellowships as a lasting tribute to his work and achievements.

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