What was visualized? A method for describing content of performance summary displays in feedback interventions.

BACKGROUND: Visual displays such as charts and tables may significantly moderate the effects of audit and feedback interventions, but the systematic study of these intervention components will likely remain limited without a method for isolating the information content of a visual display from its form elements. The objective of this study is to introduce such a method based on an application of visualization frameworks to enable a systematic approach to answer the question, "What was visualized?" in studies of audit and feedback. METHODS: The proposed method uses 3 steps to systematically identify and describe the content of visual displays in feedback interventions: 1) identify displays, 2) classify content, and 3) identify elements. The use of a visualization framework led us to identify information content types as representations of measures (metrics or indicators), ascribees (feedback recipients and comparators), performance levels, and time intervals. We illustrate the proposed method in a series of 3 content analyses, one for each step, to identify visual displays and their information content in published example performance summaries. RESULTS: We analyzed a convenience sample of 44 published studies of audit and feedback. Through each step, two coders had good agreement. We identified 42 visual displays of performance, containing 6 unique combinations of content types. What was visualized most commonly in the sample was performance levels across a recipient and comparators (i.e. ascribees) for a single measure and single time interval (n = 16). Content types varied in their inclusion of measures, ascribees, and time intervals. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed method appears to be feasible to use as a systematic approach to describing visual displays of performance. The key implication of the method is that it offers more granular and consistent description for empirical, theoretical, and design studies about the information content of feedback interventions.

Designing Tailored Displays for Clinical Practice Feedback: Developing Requirements with User Stories.

Improving visualizations in clinical quality reports and dashboards may improve the visualization influence on clinical practice. Tailored displays could accommodate individual and situational differences, but these diplays introduce complex requirements across healthcare professionals and teams. We applied user stories, a method for managing complex software requirements, to a user-centered design process for tailored visual displays about postpartum contraception care. We mapped user stories to tailored displays to identify the quantity of displays that were supported by each user story. We developed 9 tailored displays and 11 user stories. Displays varied in their mappings to user stories (mean 5, max 9, min 0), revealing differences in healthcare professionals and teams preferences and information needs. User stories and user-centered design may be useful for healthcare organizations to manage complex requirements of tailored displays in clinical practice feedback.