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Geospatial Health and Development

Our Geospatial Health and Development Team uses cutting-edge technologies to better understand how and why the health and wellbeing of children varies from place to place. We develop innovative geospatial methods that can harness large, complex datasets to pinpoint hotspots of elevated risk, evaluate change through time, and explore underlying drivers.

Geography offers a powerful lens through which to view child health and development.

We know that many of the components that determine the health of a population are inherently geographical, that is, they vary in a systematic way from place to place. This is true of nearly all infectious and non-communicable diseases, but is also commonly seen in child wellbeing, developmental and educational outcomes.

Understanding the geography of child health and development potentially allows better targeting of a response: action against an infectious disease hotspot; a targeted public health campaign to promote pro-health behaviours; allocation of health services to reach an under-served population. Crucially, by analysing how health varies, we are often able to better understand why it varies – identifying underlying risk or protective factors that affect different populations to different extents.

Advances in the amount, quality, and geographical precision of available data mean we are better placed than ever before to gain detailed geographical insights into a wide range of child health and development challenges. Leveraging these data require increasingly sophisticated geospatial analysis methods and the Geospatial Health and Development Team are among the world leaders in the use of spatial analysis, geostatistics and geographical information systems in health research.

The Geospatial Health and Development Team has research focus areas addressing both global and local health challenges.

  • Our flagship global project is the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP). MAP is a 15-year project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that tracks the global distribution of malaria – one of the largest contributors to child mortality across the world.

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  • In Western Australia, we are playing a lead role in the DETECT Schools project which is improving our understanding of the risk and impact of COVID-19 on school communities across the State.

Team leader

Program Head, Child Health Analytics; Team Lead, Geospatial Health and Development; Kerry M Stokes AC Chair in Child Health

Team members (26)

Susan Rumisha
Susan Rumisha

PhD (Biostatistics)

Honorary Research Associate

Senior Solutions Development Lead, Geospatial Health and Development Data Engine

Honorary Research Fellow

Honorary Research Associate

Tolu Okitika
Tolu Okitika

BSc, MPH, PMP

Senior Program Manager; Deputy Theme Head, Brain and Behaviour

Research Officer

Annie Browne
Annie Browne

DPhil, MPH, BSc (hons)

Senior Research Officer

Director of Malaria Risk Stratification

Front-End Developer

Hunter Baggen
Hunter Baggen

BA, MPH, MPhil

Research Assistant

Senior Research Officer, Malaria Atlas Project

Joe Harris
Joe Harris

BA (Oxon), MSt, MSc

Senior Analyst Programmer

Analyst Programmer

Michael McPhail
Michael McPhail

DPhil, BSc (Hons)

Senior Research Officer

Honorary Research Associate

Analyst Programmer

Research Officer

Research Assistant

Tim Pesch
Tim Pesch

BSc Mathematics, MSc Mathematics

Model development team, Research Officer

Administration Officer

Sarah Hafsia
Sarah Hafsia

Master of Science, Technology, and Health

Research Assistant

Honorary Team Member

Senior Research Officer

Yuval Berman
Yuval Berman

BPhil (Hons)

Research Assistant