Visualizing Health and Healthcare Data
Creating Clear and Compelling Visualizations to "See How You're Doing"
1. Edition December 2020
240 Pages, Softcover
Practical Approach Book
Further versions
The only data visualization book written by and for health and healthcare professionals.
In health and healthcare, data and information are coming at organizations faster than they can consume and interpret it. Health providers, payers, public health departments, researchers, and health information technology groups know the ability to analyze and communicate this vast array of data in a clear and compelling manner is paramount to success. However, they simply cannot find experienced people with the necessary qualifications. The quickest (and often the only) route to meeting this challenge is to hire smart people and train them.
Visualizing Health and Healthcare Data: Creating Clear and Compelling Visualizations to "See how You're Doing" is a one-of-a-kind book for health and healthcare professionals to learn the best practices of data visualization specific to their field. It provides a high-level summary of health and healthcare data, an overview of relevant visual intelligence research, strategies and techniques to gather requirements, and how to build strong teams with the expertise required to create dashboards and reports that people love to use. Clear and detailed explanations of data visualization best practices will help you understand the how and the why.
* Learn how to build beautiful and useful data products that deliver powerful insights for the end user
* Follow along with examples of data visualization best practices, including table and graph design for health and healthcare data
* Learn the difference between dashboards, reports, multidimensional exploratory displays and infographics (and why it matters)
* Avoid common mistakes in data visualization by learning why they do not work and better ways to display the data
Written by a top leader in the field of health and healthcare data visualization, this book is an excellent resource for top management in healthcare, as well as entry-level to experienced data analysts in any health-related organization.
Section I Establishing a Framework and Process 1
Chapter 1 Health and Healthcare Data Visualizations of Historical Importance 3
Chapter 2 Stop Hunting Unicorns and Start Building Teams and Know The Data 9
Search for Characteristics and Core Competencies 10
Get to Know the Data 11
Classifications, Intent, Purpose, and Lineage 12
Two Types of Data 14
Qualitative/Categorical Data 14
Quantitative/Numerical Data 14
Scales/Levels of Measure 15
Nominal 15
Ordinal 16
Interval 17
Ratio 18
Summary 19
Chapter 3 Requirements-Gathering and Design Methods 21
Design Thinking Foundational Concepts 22
Design Methods 23
Contextual Inquiry 23
Mental Models 24
Personas 26
Persona Creation Guide 27
Graphic Organizers 29
Guided Analytics Framework 29
Summary Overview Dashboard 30
Supporting Focused Reports 30
Details 31
Multidimensional Exploratory Displays (MEDs(TM)) 31
Sketching 32
Prototyping 33
Testing 34
Summary 36
Section II Perceiving the Best Practices of Data Visualization 37
Chapter 4 The Research 39
Research Informs Data Visualization Best Practices 39
Preattentive Attributes 41
Preattentive Attributes at Work 43
Gestalt Principles 46
Color Theory 48
The Power of White Space 53
Where People Look 54
Summary 54
Chapter 5 Table Design Checklist 55
Fundamentals of Table Design 55
Organization/Categorization 55
Non-Data Ink 56
Fonts 56
Number Alignment and Formatting 56
Labels 58
Summary 58
Chapter 6 Powerful Visualizations in Four Shapes 59
Bars, Lines, Points, and Boxes 59
Shape One: Bars 61
Bar Basics 61
Using Bars To: See How You're Doing 63
Distributions 63
Histograms 63
Population Pyramid (Paired Bars) 65
Ranking 67
Change over Time 68
Comparing Multiple Data Points 70
Proportions | Part-to-Whole 71
Challenging the 100% Myth 73
Deviation (Difference, Variation) 73
Ranges and Comparative Values 74
Displaying the Vital Few: Pareto Charts 77
Bars Are Not Boring 78
Shape Two: Lines 79
Line Basics 79
Using Lines To: See How You're Doing 83
As a Reference | Comparison 83
Change over Time 84
Change over Time | Sparklines 86
Change over Time | Deviation Graphs 87
Distributions 88
Distributions | The Empirical Rule and Control Charts 88
Statistical Process Control Charts (SPCs) and Geometric (G) Charts 90
Relationships | Correlations 91
Shape Three: Points 92
Point Basics 92
Using Points To: See How You're Doing 94
Distributions 94
Revealing Details 95
Change over Time 96
Correlation 96
Hierarchy Quadrant 97
Location Details 98
Shape Four: Boxes 98
Box Basics 99
Using Boxes To: See How You're Doing 99
Distribution 99
Multiple Values 100
Change over Time and Utilization Rates 101
Hierarchical Data 101
Other Shapes 102
Summary 103
Chapter 7 Maps 105
Using Maps to Gain Insights 105
Geographic Maps 105
Choropleth Maps 106
Hex-Tile Maps 109
Symbol/Dot-Density Maps 110
Proportional Symbol Maps 112
When Not to Use a Map 113
Summary 114
Chapter 8 Graphs and Charts to Never Use or Use with Caution 115
When "Cool Displays" Are Anything But 115
Pie and Donut Charts 117
Why People Use Them 117
Characteristics 118
Challenges 118
Best Practice Alternative 119
Multiples of Several-Part Stacked Bar Charts (MSPSBCs) 121
Why People Use Them 121
Characteristics 121
Challenges 121
Best Practice Alternative 124
Bubble Charts 124
Why People Use Them 124
Characteristics 125
Challenges 125
Best Practice Alternative 126
Treemaps 128
Why People Use Them 128
Characteristics 129
Challenges 129
Best Practice Alternative 130
Marimekko (Mekko or Mosaic) Charts 132
Why People Use Them 132
Characteristics 132
Challenges 134
Best Practice Alternative 134
Radial Bar and Petal Charts 134
Why People Use Them 134
Characteristics 135
Challenges 135
Best Practice Alternative 136
Radar Charts 138
Why People Use Them 138
Characteristics 138
Challenges 138
Best Practice Alternative 139
Sankey Diagrams 141
Why People Use Them 141
Characteristics 141
Challenges 142
Best Practice Alternative 144
One More Thing: 3-D 145
Summary 146
Chapter 9 Making Accessible Visualizations 149
Accessible Design is Good Design 149
Accessibility in Data Visualization 150
Ways to Make Accessible Data Visualizations 151
Summary 158
Section III Creating Compelling Data Displays 159
Chapter 10 Dashboards, Reports, and Multidimensional Exploratory Displays (MEDs(TM)) 161
Definitions Matter 161
Dashboards 162
Dashboards Defined 162
Purpose/Objective 162
Data/Information 163
Design 164
Example Dashboards 165
Dashboard Summary 169
Reports 170
Reports Defined 170
Purpose/Objective 170
Design 170
Example Reports 171
Report Summary 176
Multidimensional Exploratory Displays (MEDs(TM)) 176
MEDs(TM) Defined 177
Purpose/Objective 177
Design 177
Example MED(TM) 177
MEDs(TM) Summary 184
Summary 184
Chapter 11 Infographics 185
"No Tobacco Day" Infographic 186
Measles and Vaccinations Infographic 188
Infographic vs. Infoposter 191
Summary 194
Section IV Closing Thoughts and Recommended Reading and Resources 195
Closing Thoughts 197
Fluency and Mastery 197
Bitten by the Viz Bug | Recommended Reading and Resources 199
Recommended Reading 199
Resources 201
Accessibility Resources 202
Author Bios 203
References 207
Index 211
Kathy is the Co-founder and Principal of HealthDataViz (HDV) where she has led innovative and ground-breaking projects and data visualization training initiatives for leading organizations such as Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Children's Hospital Association. A graduate of the University of NH and Dartmouth Medical School, Kathy lives in Maine and loves being on the water and cruising the coast with her family on their boat "Visualize."
With seven years wholly immersed in healthcare data visualization, following ten years as a licensed marriage and family therapist, Lindsay brings a wealth of direct care experience and an unbridled passion and nationally recognized expertise for visualizing health and healthcare data. A Tableau Zen Master and member of the HealthDataViz (HDV) team, Lindsay is an enthusiastic creator of effective, intuitive, and beautiful dashboards that people love to use and make the story and opportunities buried in the data clear. Her passion for health and healthcare data knows no bounds evidenced by her establishment of #ProjectHealthViz, a community of passionate data visualizers that create displays of health and healthcare data each month to tell our health stories.
Lindsay has a B.A. from Bucknell University and an M.A. from the University of Connecticut. She currently lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two boys.
Cambria Brown has over ten years of experience analyzing and visualizing health and healthcare data, and is a Tableau Desktop Certified Professional. With a background in public health, survey design, advanced biostatistics, and quality improvement, Cambria understands the full data use cycle and is passionate about helping organizations use data to improve health.
As a member of the HealthDataViz team, she has developed beautiful, user-friendly, and high impact dashboards for a variety of clients including the New York City Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Colorado Dept. of Public Health and Environment, and the Urban Indian Health Institute. Cambria holds a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Oregon Health & Science University. She lives in Colorado where, when not data vizzing, she enjoys going on adventures with her husband and two children.
