Blog
Over the past 15 years, Andy has compiled a range of reflections on how communities can effectively leverage data. See below what’s been on Andy’s mind.
How Can Data Visualization Improve Local Conditions? Building for Practicality May Be the Secret Sauce
Nightingale, a publication of the international Data Visualization Society, November 2019
This piece covers local data viz projects taking place all over the globe, from New York City to Peru to Nigeria, and many other places. What is the secret to data vizzes that have a tangible, in-the-trenches, local impact? See what data practitioners have to say on that subject.
If You Partner, They Might Just Come: One Foundation’s Effort to Disseminate Data on Quality of Care
A summary of California Health Care Foundation’s initiatives to promulgate data about the quality of hospitals and nursing homes.
Health Data Are Potent Fuel for Change
California Health Care Foundation, 2015
This blog post, co-written with the then-secretary for California’s health agency, summarizes how open data not only has inspired innovation across California, but also has helped make state government more effective.
Dashboards Are Not Data Stories
Nightingale, a publication of the international Data Visualization Society, November 2021
Dashboards have become shorthand for data display, but sometimes dashboards don’t adequately address the assignment we’re often given as visualization specialists – to “create a story from the data.”
In addition, this blog post inspired a Data Visualization Society-sponsored discussion on the benefits, purposes, and drawbacks of dashboards; I was a panelist in that YouTube chat.
Asterisk Nation: One Tribe’s Challenge to Find Data About its Population
Nightingale, a publication of the International Data Visualization Society, February 2021
How can we analyze findings and visualize results when data for important communities are simply not reported? In the coming months and years, as Census data are compiled, released, analyzed, and visualized, let’s keep in mind who we don’t count, or who we undercount.
Flattening the Curve and Expanding My Understanding: Lessons from Data Visualizations Done Well
Nightingale, a publication of the International Data Visualization Society, March 2020
The concept of “flattening the curve” and the related graph has been shared widely during the spread of the Coronavirus outbreak, and it’s been heartening to see health data visualization so concretely help us understand the need to “squish down” and spread out the impact from COVID-19.
13 Things to Visualize About COVID-19 Besides Case Loads
Nightingale, a publication of the international Data Visualization Society, March 2020
The data focus early in this pandemic is understandably on case loads, but there are other things that we can visualize to help us understand the true impact of COVID-19.
Visualizing the Opioid Epidemic
Journal of Public Health Management & Practice, July 2019
Various local and state health departments are developing opioid data dashboards containing visualizations, descriptive information, and downloadable data or reports. Opioid data dashboards can potentially improve our understanding of the opioid epidemic, facilitate community planning, promote evidence-based decision making, and support monitoring and evaluation. Yet, will these data dashboards meet these goals?
A Radical Proposal: Should Health Journalists Leave the Sidelines?
The Center for Health Journalism, September 2017
With all of the local work taking place in communities across America to help improve health outcomes with data, it’s important to ask the question of what role journalists should play in these local data ecosystems.
Playing with Data
California Health Care Foundation, 2016
Reflections and recommendations on how communities across California can help improve local conditions through data and data storytelling.
Why We Need Less Data and More Story in the Evidence We Present
It’s (understandably) challenging for researchers to communicate with stories + data. In this blog post series, I share some ideas on what we can do to help address this.