Using Evidence, Visualization and Statistical Thinking to Improve Healthcare--Howard Wainer1/21/2015
![]() Although not necessarily a book for the expert in the field of data visualization, Wainer refines the finer points of displaying medical evidence accurately and in a compelling informative manner. The use of examples from the literature citing such pioneers as Edward Tufte and even reaching back to origins of evidenced-based medicine by Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis's 1835 published account discrediting the efficacy of "bloodletting". One of the most interesting stories presented in the Medical Illuminations text centers around the introduction of Will Burtin as a pioneer of scientific visualization beginning in Nazi Germany. Burtin was a designer coming to notoriety at the brink of a world war and developing a lengthy association with UpJohn Pharmaceuticals--including a collaboration to construct a large model of a red blood cell at the San Francisco 1958 American Medical Association meeting. Visualizing data displaying the effectiveness of penicillin, streptomycin and neomycin on 16 different bacteria provided an informative graphic to help guide clinicians and researchers both in the era of the new "wonder drug" of medicine.
Burtin's diagram compares impacts of Penicillin, Streptomycin and Neomycin on a range of bacteria (Scope, Fall 1951) From here, you are artfully led toward potential improvements to an already spectacular graphic helping you to refine your eye and the use of graphical tools. You will need to refer to the book directly for details that suggest avenues for additional improvement but here is a handy tool below. A few suggestions to keep in mind...
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In a world of "evidence-based" medicine I am a bigger fan of practice-based evidence.
Remember the quote by Upton Sinclair... “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” |