On-Demand Learning Lab: Truthful and Useful - Presenting Data for Change in the Age of Fake News-Recorded Learning Lab - Truthful & Useful Presenting Data for Change in the Age of Fake News

Video Transcription

Video Summary

NACU hosted a Learning Lab titled “Truthful and Useful: Presenting Data for Change in the Age of Fake News,” featuring Stephen Dirkota, a CPHQ and manager of process and performance management at Piedmont Healthcare. Dirkota framed the session around a growing “crisis of public trust,” citing Edelman’s Trust Barometer findings that trust in information sources is at record lows while urgency to improve the healthcare system is rising. He argued healthcare quality professionals have an ethical responsibility to be both data-literate and effective communicators for change.<br /><br />Dirkota introduced a model of communication that starts with an audience question and ends with insight, emphasizing “rhetoric” as the bridge. He outlined three rhetorical goals—evoke emotion, provoke action, and promote understanding—supported by three visual strategies: decoratives (color, font), indicatives (contrast, positioning to direct attention), and informatives (titles, labels, axes).<br /><br />Using examples from Georgia’s COVID dashboards, he demonstrated how misleading axes, clutter, and data grouping can imply false trends. He then discussed “mind bugs” (pattern-seeking, storytelling, confirmation bias) and recommended countermeasures such as statistical testing, considering alternative explanations, and verifying the frame of the question.<br /><br />Practical guidance for truthful design included maintaining proportional encoding, normalizing counts (e.g., using rates/SIRs rather than raw totals), avoiding most dual-axis charts (Pareto as an exception), and being cautious about conclusions drawn from grouped data. To make presentations useful, he stressed understanding the audience’s real question and using a clear narrative structure—setup, problem, and resolution/call to action—to drive action without overwhelming slides. He closed by addressing the ethical challenge of presenting honest results that conflict with executive expectations by reframing toward shared goals and positioning leaders to act as “heroes.”

Keywords

NACU Learning Lab

Truthful and Useful

data visualization ethics

healthcare quality improvement

crisis of public trust

Edelman Trust Barometer

rhetorical communication model

misleading charts and axes

cognitive biases mind bugs

normalizing data rates SIRs