November 20, 2018 at 9:51 am
skeleton567 - Tuesday, November 20, 2018 8:49 AMI think there is a difference here between the function we are discussing and what we think of as a Data Analyst. I think of this much like the function of a court reporter who is focused on the capture of data as opposed to use of the data. I recently participated in several legal deposition sessions, and in those situations there were actually people whose entire function and focus was on COLLECTING and preserving information for LATER analysis and use. And further, I think it is important that these functions of collection of data be as unbiased as is humanly possible. I think bias in data collection is, as the Donald says, a 'UGE' issue.
This is some of it. The other part of being able to pull back that information for others, helping them find data.
Medical scribes that are in the room (often behind a screen when visual privacy is needed), can look up old data and bring this back to physicians that are looking for more color/history.
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/way0utwest
Forum Etiquette: How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help
My Blog: www.voiceofthedba.com
November 20, 2018 at 1:53 pm
Very interesting, Steve. I've always been the type that wants to make some software system better to use for the end user who isn't comfortable with computers. And I'll admit that I get frustrated with the upper managers who don't like the solutions I've come up with or the counselor who couldn't understand why they had to enter data elements when all they wanted to do was write narrative. You've convinced me that having a "Data Scribe" would be a good idea. Interesting title, "data scribe". I wonder what such a position would take? I suspect that is some role that would be incorporated into the Administrative Assistant position, unless the business was a big one, then a "Data Scribe" could be a separate position.
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
November 20, 2018 at 3:01 pm
An administrative assistant who specializes in performing basic data querying tasks for an executive would probably be soon displaced by {Alexa, Cortana, Echo, Watson}. It still sounds like a job description 20 years late.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
November 20, 2018 at 6:03 pm
Steve Jones - SSC Editor - Tuesday, November 20, 2018 9:51 AMskeleton567 - Tuesday, November 20, 2018 8:49 AMI think there is a difference here between the function we are discussing and what we think of as a Data Analyst. I think of this much like the function of a court reporter who is focused on the capture of data as opposed to use of the data. I recently participated in several legal deposition sessions, and in those situations there were actually people whose entire function and focus was on COLLECTING and preserving information for LATER analysis and use. And further, I think it is important that these functions of collection of data be as unbiased as is humanly possible. I think bias in data collection is, as the Donald says, a 'UGE' issue.This is some of it. The other part of being able to pull back that information for others, helping them find data.
Medical scribes that are in the room (often behind a screen when visual privacy is needed), can look up old data and bring this back to physicians that are looking for more color/history.
Sounds like what data engineers are doing. They are filling in the gap where the analyst or data scientist lacks the skills to wrangle or pull the data for themselves. Basically, getting all the data prepped so others can pull or report on it or even get it into the reports so they can just hit reload. Though, they would not be in a room recording data to put into a system. They would make the tech to automatically do this for you instead.
This is pretty much what my team does. We automate and perform ad-hoc data requests for the teams that lack the skills. We also work on taking what we discover from these ad-hoc requests and try to put it into production so we don't have to be used again--make it self serviced.
November 21, 2018 at 3:10 am
From my reading of the article the doctors were having problems with data entry in part because poor UI after a redesign which some in frustration were attempting to fix by learning UI design or plain hiring data entry bods.
Analysis was not really a problem other than again presentation was poor and apparently incoherent (a vicious circle that often happens with poor UI)
Having done one biggish ETL project now from start to finish and seen how quickly it is really possible to get information into systems if you automate absolutely everything with no limits ( We are talking in my case about 400,000 % faster which equated to the entire manual input of approximately 50 ish people over 15 years in about an hour) I think manual data entry needs to be banished as much as possible.
Whether that's Alexa or the IOT don't mind.
Easily said hard to do!
November 21, 2018 at 6:46 am
If the job basically involves assisting end users with data entry and querying using the front office application GUI (not back office ETL programming or data analysis) then I'd call it an administrative assistant / desktop support. Having worked in healthcare IT, I can say that such a job at a medical facility would require specialized training and knowledge of things like medical diagnosis and procedure codes which can be complicated, practically a programming language in itself.
https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD9ProviderDiagnosticCodes/codes.html
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
November 21, 2018 at 8:23 am
Eric M Russell - Wednesday, November 21, 2018 6:46 AMHaving worked in healthcare IT, I can say that such a job at a medical facility would require specialized training and knowledge of things like medical diagnosis and procedure codes which can be complicated, practically a programming language in itself.
We work in a Social Care setting, and whilst a technical team, we are part of the business rather than an IT function for specifically the reasons you mention.
Knowledge of care pathways and legislation is key in being able to understand what the data means, and being able to translate an operational term into something meaningful from the system.
We work with two quite different vocabularies, and a large portion of our work is interpreting requirements phrased in non-system terminology.
It is an old chestnut, but we've found that although much is pushed out to the consumer/customer for self service, that element of the job hasn't changed in the last 20 years.
And with ever increasing cuts, staff simply don't have the time to devote to reporting tools and data investigation.
Viewing 7 posts - 16 through 21 (of 21 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply