As well as working on these "Nature (journal)" papers, Hay's Local Burden of Disease (LBD)  team explores health trends at a high spatial resolution to provide information to local decision-makers. Hay investigates spatial and temporal aspects of infectious disease epidemiology to support the more rational implementation of disease control and intervention strategies. Hay was awarded the Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London (2008), the Back Award of the Royal Geographical Society (2012), for research contributing to public health policy, the Bailey K. Ashford Medal of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (2013) and the Chalmers Medal of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (2015), both for exceptional contributions to tropical medicine.