ONE OF the foundations of the government’s health strategy is the policy emphasis that has placed the individual at the centre of the healthcare system. This change is welcome. However, the policy implementation is weakened  by crucial information gaps that mean little is known about the collective health experience of individuals at different stages in life. At the Institute for the Geography of Health, at the University of Portsmouth, we have now been working for a number of years to reduce this knowledge gap and have developed the methods described in this article. We believe that the results of our work are now starting to provide a consistent basis for identifying disease management priorities, both regionally and sub-regionally. This in turn lays a basis for costeffective local implementation.