I’ve heard people say “What’s the difference between stats and lies? Nothing!” While that’s a bit of an exaggeration, there is something to say about stats that don’t share the real story. A good person with the right data can tell whatever story they want to tell.
I guess this fact is why this cartoon resonated so much to me and many others who shared it on social media.
"In this era of data-driven marketing, dashboards can give marketers a false sense of security (…) but the true value depends on what’s being measured" via @marketoonist ? https://t.co/3iGQitBEou pic.twitter.com/LNacN4WwJo
— AT Internet (@AT_Internet) November 5, 2018
The tweet is said from a marketer’s standpoint, but the same is true in healthcare as well. A nurse or doctor looking at a dashboard might miss something if the dashboards aren’t measuring the right thing. The same is true for any healthcare leader that spends time looking at dashboards. Dashboards are great…if you’re measuring and presenting the right things.
Don’t be WOWed by the fancy charts and graphs until you understand what the data really means.