Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
In a work setting, I have not used or encountered box-and-whisker plots and histograms much. Workwise, I’m more used to seeing the standard bar charts or line graphs generally. I have had some exposure to these types of graphs in my undergraduate and graduate studies though. I find histograms a bit easier to understand especially when we talk about distribution data. The box-and-whisker plots are understood as well, but definitely it is helpful to have a refresher on what the components of that type of chart is to fully understand what you’re looking at.
I also agree that a line graph would be the best option to show membership trends over the course of the year. When looking at the trends for membership vs. employee/spouse/dependent, I would set it up so that there are different colored lines for each membership type and note in the legend which category corresponds to each line. For showing the Eastern and Northern trends on the same graph, I think that having the different colored lines can still work. If we’re setting this graph with the Eastern and Northern membership trends vs. employee/spouse/dependent, I think that there can be two main colors (e.g., blue for Eastern and red for Northern). To distinguish between employee/spouse/dependent, the blue and red color gradient lines can be used for the specific membership types.
I would consider the WHO local maternity dashboard as a dashboard within the context of the definitions from the textbook and Stephen Few’s article. Both definitions note common components such as a visual display of the most important information; the information being tied to a specific objective; and an “at-a-glance” view. The maternity dashboard implemented in Milo Central Hospital in Zimbabwe appears to fit these key dashboard components. First, the dashboard at Mpilo is shown as a visual display with a color-coded format, in which the data is compared to set targets. The key information is shown through specific clinical indicators (e.g., number of women who gave birth, percentage of women who died, etc.). Second, this dashboard’s main purpose is to provide feedback on the PROMPT training course for the maternity staff. There is also an added value of being able to use the data displayed to highlight adverse trends in maternal health outcomes based on the mentioned clinical indicators. Lastly, as shown in the article, the maternity dashboard is presented in an “at-a-glance” format, with a monthly trend view.
