“Earlier this summer I read with great interest former Chief Statistician Katherine Wallman’s call for discussion about the major challenges facing our nation’s 13 principal federal statistical agencies. These agencies – together comprising the federal government’s data infrastructure – promote our country’s well being by providing objective, non-partisan, and independent data to address society’s most pressing problems.”
“In response to Wallman’s call for discussion and in my capacity as former Director of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), I offer this urgent assessment of the data infrastructure at NCHS, which since 2010 has lost more than 10% of its purchasing power due to inflation while facing significant challenges on how it currently collects and disseminates its data. I believe this situation is not unique to NCHS and reflects similar challenges faced by other statistical agencies. Under this constrained budget, NCHS’ most pressing challenge is the struggle to collect and provide the ‘right’ data at the right time for policy makers, organizations, and community officials who endeavor to promote the health of our citizenry via effective programming and evidence-based policies. Let’s look closer at what I mean by the ‘right’ data, and how a strong data infrastructure could save lives…” Read the full article here.
Source: State of the U.S. Data Infrastructure at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) – By Charles Rothwell, September 25, 2019. LinkedIn.
