Jon Brassey posted:
>Infographics. I'm exploring better ways of visually displaying 'evidence'. Lots of text, some tables and the >occasional forest plot is, I think, a barrier to engagement. Surely we can do better!?
>Networks...
There are several places you might want to look regarding the infographics issue. First is the work by William Cleveland on the visual encoding & decoding of scientific information (his books "Visualizing Data" & "The Elements of Graphing Data" are available from Hobart Press in Summit NJ). Second is outcomes of the AHRQ RFP "Building the Science of Public Reporting - RFA-HS-12-004" (application period closed 28 March, funding announcements are due out in July or August, and while scope of this grant is on consumer use of reports the three year opportunity seeks to address fundamental knowledge gaps underlying poor design, irrelevant content and inadequate dissemination in today's visual displays. Colin Wheildon's book ("Type & Layout: Are you communicating or..." from Worsley Press in Oz) also contains useful insights on important but subtle aspects. Fogg's website at Stanford holds a wealth of information about features that add or diminish credibility (http://credibility.stanford.edu/). Gigerenzer's work (Psychological Science in the Public Interest 2007;8(2):53-96) and the Rifkin & Bouwer book ("The Illusion of Certainty", from Springer) examine a number of different formats and reasons many find the most common ones challenging to interpret. There are other pertinent papers as well related to portraying information about healthcare-associated infections (the focus of my research collaborative - see CLINICAL GOVERNANCE 2012;17(2) theme issue for details about us if interested), but those mentioned above might best fit as a starting point.
Not clear about the nature of your "value" question concerning networks, but you might also want to keep an eye on another AHRQ RFP concerning networks (RFA-HS-12—005 titled “Partnerships for Sustainable Research and Dissemination of Evidence-based Medicine"). I believe the application period on this one closed recently, funding decisions are due out later on this one, and its intent might align closely with issues you're wrestling with.
David
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David Birnbaum, PhD, MPH
Adjunct Professor
School of Nursing & School of Population and Public Health
University of British Columbia
Principal
Applied Epidemiology
British Columbia, Canada
