Crimson Hexagon co-founder Gary King still heads IQSS over at Harvard — and some of his innovative research design is getting some interesting press after its publication in The Lancet.

King and his colleagues designed and led a study with about 500,000 people:  the largest-ever randomized health policy experiment. The study featured innovative research designs and statistical methods that make best use of available data in a cost-effective way.

What’s next? According to HarvardScience, the approach is now being implemented in, or considered for evaluations of — many other public policy programs around the world. The ability to understand what’s important and moving the public policy needle at a lower cost than other research methods is huge — particularly when you’re talking about delivering healthcare to the world’s poorest populations. As the petabyte age becomes a reality, innovative data-driven analysis becomes a necessity.