Topic 1 DQ 1: Discuss the historical application of statistics in the field of health care. Describe an example, other than Florence Nightingale’s contributions, where statistical application has greatly influenced or changed health care operations or practice.

Topic 1 DQ 1: Discuss the historical application of statistics in the field of health care. Describe an example, other than Florence Nightingale’s contributions, where statistical application has greatly influenced or changed health care operations or practice.

Topic 1 DQ 1: Historical Application of Statistics

It is difficult to have epidemiology research that does not constitute tables, odds ratio, or p-value. Statistics and mathematical methods are significant in the assessment of data as they help in the identification of causes of disease, modes of transmission, preventive measures, and the appropriate control mechanism (Stroup, & Lyerla, 2011).

In history, the use of statistics in health care can be evidenced by the current Center for Disease Control (CDC) when it was established in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center. The change of the name meant that the institution was broadening its scope of services.

The expansion increased the opportunities for the institution to utilize the contribution of statistics and engineering methods in health care (Stroup, & Lyerla, 2011). For instance, the CDC, in conjunction with the National Center for Health Statistics, carried out the first-ever National Health Assessment and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which helped to the development of the model to predict the amount of lead in human blood.

William Farr – His Role in Healthcare

The United States Public Health Service adopted statistical methods developed by several scientists to form the current CDC. For instance, CDC borrowed the use of statistical induction to examine death rates by William Farr’s (Beyersmann, & Schrade, 2017). Farr is a major personality in the health care sector, which is a contribution to the history of epidemiology having in the industry for more than 30 years, examining the statistics of death and disease.

He came up with the nosology – disease classification framework- which was the predecessors of the current International Classification of Diseases (ICD) (Beyersmann, & Schrade, 2017). The diseases are applying his statistical insights into the tool to monitor and classify the leading cause of injuries and death with the bid to promote coherent international compatibility in terms of reporting of health data.

References

Beyersmann, J., & Schrade, C. (2017). Florence Nightingale, William Farr and competing risks. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society), 180(1), 285-293. DOI: 10.1111/rssa.12187

Stroup, D. F., & Lyerla, R. (2011). History of statistics in public health at CDC 1960–2010: the rise of statistical evidence. Public health then and now: celebrating, 50. Retrieved 4 May 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/su6004a7.htm