Using Public Health Dashboards

1h 6mIntermediate2020-09-18

Authors

Jennifer Shin

Madecraft

Full-Service Learning Content Company

Course details

Certain events bring big data into the public eye. The COVID-19 pandemic has generated an extensive amount of data from public institutions that are publishing their own dashboards, including governments, hospitals, and schools. However, when using these resources, it's important to be able to evaluate the accuracy of the data and even more critical to use the data in a responsible manner. Learn how to evaluate the various dashboards that are available to researchers, including the COVID-19 dashboard from John Hopkins University and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) dashboard, in this course with data scientist and professor Jennifer Shin. Learn how to view and interpret dashboard metrics and visualizations and use them effectively in your own data science projects.

Topics include:
What is a dashboard?
Identifying the underlying data
Interpreting key metrics
Navigating the John Hopkins COVID-19 dashboard
Evaluating the IHME dashboard
Assessing the risks and limitations of using the dashboard

Skills covered

Data VisualizationPersonaData ScienceBusiness Analysis and StrategyBusiness Software and Tools

Concepts

Introduction

Using COVID-19 dashboards effectively

Dashboards

Overview of dashboards
Is data for all
Data sources
Dashboard components

Metrics and Visualizations

Understanding metrics
Metrics - Total vs. new counts
Metrics - Other reports
Dashboard visualizations

COVID-19 Dashboard by CSSE at JHU

Overview of the CSSE dashboard
Dashboard features
Data sources and references
Data repository

Alternative Dashboards

Not all dashboards are created equal
Introduction to IHME dashboard
Regional data

Key Considerations

COVID-19 dashboards
Limitations of dashboards
Considering cases
Key takeaways