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.

Data Visualization for Health and Healthcare Professionals is a one-of-a-kind book for health and healthcare professionals to learn the best practices of data visualization specific to their field. This book provides a high-level summary of health and healthcare data, an overview of relevant visual intelligence research, strategies and techniques to gather requirements, and instruction on 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 analytics for the end user
• Follow along with examples of data visualization best practices, including table and graph design for health and healthcare data
• 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.

Kathy Rowell is a nationally recognized health, healthcare, and data visualization expert, lecturer, and author specializing in helping leading organizations analyze, design, and present visual displays of data to inform their decisions and stimulate effective action. She is the co-author of the Best Boring Book Ever (BBBE) of Healthcare Classification Systems and Databases, and BBBE of Tableau for Healthcare Professionals, which are used by numerous colleges and universities and professional organizations to teach and train students and professionals.
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.

Preface

Section I Establishing a Framework and Process

Chapter 1 Introduction

Health and Healthcare Data Visualizations of Historical Importance

Chapter 2 Health and Healthcare Data: Stop Hunting Unicorns and Start Building Teams

Search for Characteristics and Core Competencies

Get to Know the Data

Classifications, Intent, Purpose, and Lineage

Two Types of Data

Scales/Levels of Measure

Nominal

Ordinal

Interval

Ratio

Summary

Chapter 3 Requirements-Gathering and Design Methods

Design Thinking Foundational Concepts

Design Methods

Contextual Inquiry

Mental Models

Personas

Persona Creation Guide

Graphic Organizers

Guided Analytics Framework

Summary Overview Dashboard

Supporting Focused Reports

Details

Multidimensional Exploratory Displays (MEDs)

Process Tip

Sketching

Prototyping

Testing

Summary

Section II Perceiving the Best Practices of Data Visualization

Chapter 4 The Research

Research Informs Data Visualization Best Practices

Preattentive Attributes

Preattentive Attributes at Work

Gestalt Principles

Color Theory

The Power of White Space

Where People Look

Summary

Chapter 5 Table Design Checklist

Fundamentals of Table Design

Organization/Categorization

Non-Data Ink

Fonts

Number Alignment and Formatting

Labels

Summary

Chapter 6 Powerful Visualizations in Four Shapes

Bars, Lines, Points, and Boxes

Shape One: Bars

Bar Basics

Using Bars To: See How You’re Doing

Distributions

Histograms

Population Pyramid (Paired Bars)

Ranking

Change over Time

Comparing Multiple Data Points

Proportions | Part-to-Whole

Challenging the 100% Myth

Deviation (Difference, Variation)

Ranges and Comparative Values

Displaying the Vital Few: Pareto Charts

Bars Are Not Boring

Shape Two: Lines

Line Basics

Using Lines To: See How You’re Doing

As a Reference | Comparison

Change over Time

Change over Time | Sparklines

Change over Time | Deviation Graphs

Distributions

Distributions | The Empirical Rule and Control Charts

Statistical Process Control Charts (SPCs) and Geometric (G) Charts

Relationships | Correlations

Shape Three: Points

Point Basics

Using Points To: See How You’re Doing

Distributions

Revealing Details

Change over Time

Correlation

Hierarchy Quadrant

Location Details

Shape Four: Boxes

Box Basics

Using Boxes To: See How You’re Doing

Distribution

Multiple Values

Change over Time and Utilization Rates

Hierarchical Data

Other Shapes

Summary

Chapter 7 Maps

Using Maps to Gain Insights

Geographic Maps

Choropleth Maps

Hex-Tile Maps

Symbol/Dot-Density Maps

Proportional Symbol Maps

When Not to Use a Map

Summary

Chapter 8 Graphs and Charts to Never Use or Use with Caution

When “Cool Displays” Are Anything But

Pie and Donut Charts

Why People Use Them

Characteristics

Challenges

Best Practice Alternative

Multiples of Several-Part Stacked Bar Charts (MSPSBCs)

Why People Use Them

Characteristics

Challenges

Best Practice Alternative

Bubble Charts

Why People Use Them

Characteristics

Challenges

Best Practice Alternative

Treemaps

Why People Use Them

Characteristics

Challenges

Best Practice Alternative

Marimekko (Mekko or Mosaic) Charts

Why People Use Them

Characteristics

Challenges

Best Practice Alternative

Radial Bar and Petal Charts

Why People Use Them

Characteristics

Challenges

Best Practice Alternative

Radar Charts

Why People Use Them

Characteristics

Challenges

Best Practice Alternative

Sankey Diagrams

Why People Use Them

Characteristics

Challenges

Best Practice Alternative

One More Thing: 3-D

Summary

Chapter 9 Making Accessible Visualizations

Accessible Design Is Good Design

Accessibility in Data Visualization

Ways to Make Accessible Data Visualizations

Summary

Section III Creating Compelling Data Displays

Chapter 10 Dashboards, Reports, and Multidimensional Exploratory Displays (MEDs)

Definitions Matter

Dashboards

Dashboards Defined

Purpose/Objective

Data/Information

Design

Example Dashboards

Dashboard Design Tips

Dashboard Summary

Reports

Reports Defined

Purpose/Objective

Data/Information

Design

Example Reports

Report Design Tips

Report Summary

Multidimensional Exploratory Displays (MEDs)

MEDs Defined

Purpose/Objective

Data/Information

Design

Example MED

MEDs Design Tips

MEDs Summary

Summary

Chapter 11 Infographics

“No Tobacco Day” Infographic

Measles and Vaccinations Infographic

Infographic vs. Infoposter

Tips for Creating Infographics

Summary

Section IV Closing Thoughts and Recommended Reading and Resources

Closing Thoughts

Bitten by the Viz Bug | Recommended Reading and Resources

References

Index