Posted On:
August 22, 2008
Big Brother Watching and Measuring? Today, How Deadly is Your Hospital? Tomorrow, How (fill in the blank) are you...
USA Today's article, Hospital death rates unveiled for first-time comparison, has tools that allow users to compare mortality rates for hospitals near you:
- for heart attacks, heart failure, and pneuomnia on a map,
- compare hospitals in or near certain zip codes,
- or look at standouts (those with the highest and lowest death rates).
While data alone never tells the whole story, the use of statistics and measurement is growing across all fields and professions. The cultural change emerging with technology and collaboration will only continue to fuel this further. Law, politics, and other fields will not be far behind. Just look at sports as an example of how professionals and institutions are measured continuously. But is a focus on numbers alone good for us in the long run? How will this run into privacy concerns? Will Big Brother not only be always watching, but always measuring too? Time will tell how the law raises to these challenges and others.
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