Lim-Portfolio

Final Project Part 1 Version 2

GitHub Link

A. Outline

High-level summary: Healthcare waste is a huge problem in the United States that needs to be tackled now.

I find that the statistics on healthcare waste tend not to inspire follow-up actions. The statistics can sometimes be too abstract or too detached from everyday life for readers to know the seriousness of the issue.

Aim

As a reader, I want to lobby for a more sensible healthcare system so that I can receive better healthcare quality and experience lower healthcare costs.

As a reader, I want to identify/prioritize the waste that I can tackle by creating a business solution.

Structure of Storyline

Setup: This is what healthcare waste look like.
Conflict: If the healthcare waste is totally avoided, it could have been used for other important purposes.
Resolution: What is the level of waste saved by current solutions?

B. Data

The main dataset came from this paper which is a recent estimate of the healthcare waste: Shrank WH, Rogstad TL, Parekh N. Waste in the US Health Care System: Estimated Costs and Potential for Savings. JAMA. 2019;322(15):1501–1509. doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2019.13978)

Paper Website

PDF Acess

There are two main tables of numbers, one table is the cost of the waste by categories and the other table is cost savings from interventions.

I will compare the waste amount to other statistics to create the impression that we could have improved our lives and societies if the money is not wasted. E.g. comparing to the education budget to see how many additional teachers could have been employed or the amount of additional resources that each public school could get. This information can be easily found on government websites.

C.Method and Medium

I will be using Shorthand to show my story. Tools like datwrapper, tableau, and rawgraphs will be used to create the charts needed to drive my story. The plan for the next two weeks are:

week 1: generating the charts with story outline for feedback
week 2: refine the charts and story outline; transferred it to Shorthand