Journal Entry 5
Frances
M. Brzycki Module 5
Why was this
article, blog, post, or multimedia chosen?
One of the
many hats I wear is the role of a data analyst. I found this article to peek my
interest and wanted to explore what additional skills Russ found important that
an effective analyst should possess. “I found 90-95 percent of my time was
spent managing data, not analyzing it. I didn’t have the tools I needed”
(Staheli, 2011).
What makes it
interesting, appropriate, or reputable?
Russ examines
the healthcare data analysis lifecycle. He states “there are three stages of
transforming raw data into meaningful analytics: data capture, data
provisioning and data analysis”.
Is it an
opinion? Case study? Research study? Product review?
This article
is an expert opinion by Russ
Staheli who
specializes in quality performance outcome and analysis.
What was the
need, problem, issue or trend addressed in the article, blog, post, or
multimedia?
The author wanted
to educate the user on the healthcare data analysis lifecycle comprised of data
capture e.g., people, processes, and devices being in the right format, data
provisioning that enable clinicians to work through quality improvement issues
and lastly data analysis examining data quality, data discovery, interpretation
and presentation.
I found it
interesting that you need to perform each one of these steps in order to
achieve sustainable, meaningful healthcare analytics and not to do these as
separate steps. “Interpretation is the step most people think of when analyzing
data. It turns out it is the smallest sub-step in a long process” (Staheli,
2011).
What was the
solution for which technology had an answer?
Besides having
a robust Enterprise Data Warehouse to help the analyst in their
problem-solving. The article suggested to provide analyst with a “sandbox” to
tinker and test their findings. To me this is a no brainer when you are doing “what
if” analysis and want to test out your hypothesis prior to moving the changes into
a production environment. Staheli suggests the analyst need the right tools to
perform his/her job. For instance, business intelligence (BI) tools to forecast,
trends graphics etc. and trend data. Lastly,
the analyst should have direction that allow them to drill down on the data.
What
implications might this have in healthcare delivery?
You can have the best data, however if it isn’t presented in a logical,
organized fashion and not understood it doesn’t provide meaning to the reader. I’m
of the opinion the presenter needs to be the story teller to weave the picture of
the problem that is being analyzed and provide possible alternatives if they
exist.
What did you learn from it that might
have application for your practice? I
look forward to reading the book regarding “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information”
that examines the best way to display data for precise, effective, quick
analysis using statistical graphics and detailed analysis.
References
Staheli, R. (2011). 4 Ways Healthcare Data Analysts Can Provide
Their Full Value Retrieved from https://www.healthcatalyst.com/healthcare-analytics-best-practices
Great job!
ReplyDeleteFran,
ReplyDeleteI can definitely understand the reference you made regarding data analysts spending so much time gathering and managing data, that oftentimes analyzing the data is overlooked. This is ironic because this is the point of managing the data! I think that with the help of different data mining tools and other aids such as Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access along with proficiences in the aforementioned, gathering and compiling the data can be less of a hardship. There are many new companies developing different types of software that do the data analysis for the organization and I think it is key to invest in one of these programs in order to lessen the challenge of gathering the data and being able to spend more time analyzing it. Great post.
Gina
Thank you for your comments Gina!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments Gina!
ReplyDelete