Speaking the Language

I am a data geek. Turn me loose with a huge spreadsheet, chock-full of information, and I can entertain myself for hours. The day I learned about pivot tables changed my life forever. (If you, too, are a data geek, this statement will resonate with your soul.) And my all-time favorite thing to do with a big pile of data is to translate it into pictures (graphs) that more clearly explain the story contained in all of those numbers and allow people to take action based on that information. In a way, this mirrors my love for medicine: take a large amount of information (a person’s history, physical exam, maybe some lab data), look at it from all sides, and translate it into a diagnosis (story) and action (a plan to make the patient healthier).

Say what you will about a pandemic, it certainly generates a large amount of data to think through! Since mid-March, I have tracked and recorded the local and statewide data available from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, our hospital and our local health departments. I have turned it over, this way and that, trying to see if I could find a pattern in the data based on what was happening in our community. I have admired others who are great at data visualization (Covid ActNow, a partnership between Georgetown, Stanford and Grand Rounds, is one of my favorite places to look at data and get ideas). I have shared my various graphs and dashboards with anyone interested in looking and asked what they see and what would be more helpful to know. In some instances, those dashboards have been instrumental in deciding how to take the next step in this new world with COVID.

Translating data to story helps determine action.

I like data pictures that show directionality: where did we come from, what is happening now, what might be next? I especially appreciate it when telling the story with data leads to action. During the pandemic, having access to these data pictures assisted my local hospital team decide when to implement various safety measures, and when to back off on restrictions. It is helping my local school district determine their learning setting. And maybe most importantly, it allows me to see the data in context and over time, which helps me learn as we move through this pandemic.

When I become frustrated with folks who don’t seem to understand the implications of data, I again draw parallels to medicine: if my patient speaks only Spanish, it doesn’t help either of us if I share my diagnosis and plan in English. “Data” is rarely the language that most people speak; translation is necessary. The key to success, both in data and medicine, is speaking the language.