Please make comments on this discussion posts
Carolina
Data can effectively help achieve the main purpose of a health system in any country. As stated in the summary given for this discussion, measurement of health and disease is crucial for planning, determining, and solving in health care. Data is what allows this measurement to be provided, as well allowing this measurement to be accurate. As stated in the online journal article "U.S. Healthcare Data Today: Current State of Play", "by providing greater insight to patients, providers, and policy makers into the appropriate application of interventions, and quality and costs of care, these data offer the opportunity to accelerate progress on the six dimensions of quality care-safe, effective, patient centered, timely, efficient, and equitable" (Chaudhry, 2006; IOM, 2001, 2009; Safran et al., 2007). This statement is imperative because it demonstrates that data represented in health systems is what ultimately allows health care to improve and grow by constantly providing relevant awareness of current public health. For instance, a health system is what provides physicians with all the information regarding their patients, which affects how the physician delivers their care. Therefore, any country can utilize health systems to improve public health overall.
Angelica
Data assists health systems achieve their goal in any country by identifying with a numerical figure disease problems, causal factors, number of people experiencing these diseases etc. Data also tracks progress and is extremely useful at identifying were more work needs to be put in as well to measure how well and implementation in a specific population is being effective. For example, a line graph can show clear movement of the data adding importance to the changes it makes. Another important function of data in health systems is to measure health and disease in a population over time, data depicts the process and tracks changes identifying specific parts of concern. There was an example of this in our textbook in which a pyramid chart with percentages were used to depict the connection of a specific disease and people effected, this image creates a clear message that malaria generates a greater burden on health than TB which at the time was where most of the funding was going to to better the quality of life of the people in this region of Africa. It also serves as an educational tool for the public (Merson, Black , & Mills, 2011).
As mentioned in our textbook collecting accurate data can be a burdensome process, the amount of data that needs to be collected to show accurate reasonable estimates of a disease in a region has been a source of concern (Merson, Black , & Mills, 2011). This for me is why I am very untrustworthy of data, to collect accurate data a lot of requirements must be met. I don't believe that every individual that conducts research abides by these requirements and the only way to double check anyone's work would be to do the research all over again which is neither cost or energy effective. The ethical principles put in place keep researchers on track serve a purpose nonetheless I don't believe that people should take any data collected as fact because at the end of the day they are estimates of vast populations based on smaller numbers.