Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label health care

A simple tool operationalizes post-childbirth hemorrhaging and saves lives.

 https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/05/10/1175303067/a-plastic-sheet-with-a-pouch-could-be-a-game-changer-for-maternal-mortality https://www.bmj.com/content/381/bmj.p1055 I love this study, in and of itself, because it is based on research that will save women's lives without spending a lot of money. I love it.  Here is a link to the original study . I learned about it from an NPR story about the research by Rhitu Chaterjee . I also love it because it is an accessible example of a bunch of statistics things: Dependent variables...operationalizing variables...why cross-cultural research and solutions aren't just lip service to diversity...how control groups in medical research are very different than control groups in psychology research...absolute vs. relative risk. -Dependent variables/operationalized variables: This study clearly illustrates the power of measurement and operationalization. The researchers wanted to create a way to better assess post-childbirth h...

Dirty Data: Share the data in a way that is functionally inaccessible

In my intro stats class, we discuss shady data practices that aren't lying because they report actual numbers. But they are still shady because good data is presented in such a way as to be misleading or confusing. These topics include: Truncating the y-axis   Collecting measures of central tendency under ideal circumstances Manipulate online ratings (I didn't write the blog post about this yet, but it is coming). Relative vs. Absolute Risk AND HERE IS ANOTHER ONE: Insurance companies were asked to provide price data  RE: the Transparency in Coverage Rule in the Consolidatedated Appropriations Act of 2021. Google that if you want to know more about that, I'm not going into that. Not my lane. That said, it is an appealing idea. Let's have some transparency in our jacked-up healthcare system. And the insurance companies provided the data, but in a way inaccessible to most people. Like, all people, maybe? Because they just splurted out 100 TB of data. So, they totally com...