Innovation in China healthcare

17 June 2015

Congratulations to Hertford DPhil Student Marco Haenssgen, whose work using satellite maps for household survey sampling in rural China has been recognised with an OxTALENT award in the category of Student IT Innovation.

Marco studies mobile phone diffusion and healthcare access in rural India and China at the Oxford Department of International Development. Faced with resource constraints for a household survey in rural China, he developed an innovative approach to village and household sampling using geographical coordinates and aerial images from Google Maps and Bing Maps. Marco’s approach helped reduce the workload of his research team in China by at least 64 to 80 person-days, and reduced the need for transportation, accommodation, subsistence, and insurance expenditures for at least 8 to 10 days. It also cut costs by £4,500, or 30%

The  OxTALENT annual awards recognise members of the University who have made innovative use of digital technology in order to:

• Foster learning and academic practice at either undergraduate or postgraduate level;
• Develop more effective links between teaching and research
• Improve impact through outreach and public engagement

The judges commended especially the replicability of Marco’s approach for other students in resource-constrained research environments. In order to allow more research students to benefit from this innovative methodology, it was taught to DPhil students in Trinity Term 2015.

[The picture shows some of Marco’s co-workers navigating the survey sites using satellite maps.]