Research and Conference Papers

Using Name Analysis to Support Health Outcomes for CALD Communities

Research linking cultural origin and health outcomes both between countries and within countries is well documented.  But despite this, many health researchers and service providers do not have access to data on cultural origin, often because of constraints due to privacy, practicality or lack of completeness.

Specialised research into the effectiveness of patient names as a surrogate for cultural origin now makes it possible to understand cultural skews in the incidence of health episodes and servicing.  This advance makes it possible to develop culturally-appropriate and better targeted communication programs.

This paper briefly describes three UK cases where such an approach has enabled more effective health care management and service delivery. It concludes with reference to two health-related applications in Australia that are currently under development.

Using Name Analysis to Support Marketing to CALD Communities

This slide set was presented by Michael Dove to the 2008 Government Marketing Conference in Sydney.  It outlines the concept of name analysis, considers it strengths as an alternative to census data or data collected directly from customers, and describes four cases where name analysis has supported public sector actions that were not otherwise possible.

Cultural Diversity in Selected Australian Sports

Against a background of increasing cultural and linguistic diversity in Australian society, this paper describes an innovative method that helps assess how far this diversity is reflected at elite levels of a selection of key sports.

This approach to developing insight about the cultural origins of individual people, based on the analysis of personal and family name combinations, quantifies the cultural differences in elite-level participation between sports. and also between cultural groups.  The paper concludes by outlining some implications for sports administration, player recruitment, and community development.

A New Approach to Understanding Cultural Diversity in Australia

This paper demonstrates how, from detailed analysis of personal and family names, it is possible to develop a profile of cultural origins for any customer list. A case study using Australia’s elite sportspeople indicates the insights that can be gained and the consequent implications for sports management, player recruitment, and community development.

It concludes by suggesting that the profiling and targeting of consumers according to their cultural origins can offer new opportunities for public and commercial sector organisations, as well as help them set and meet targets in service provision.