Truth matters? What a concept!

Health Statistics
Shaping Policy and Practice to Improve the Population’s Health
Daniel J. Friedman, Edward L. Hunter and R. Gibson Parrish, eds.

Kaiser Family Foundation Vice President Larry Levitt co-authored (with Georgetown University’s Judy Feder) “Why Truth Matters: Health Statistics in Health Policy,” a chapter in a new book from Oxford University Press that explores the role of statistics in health reform debates in the U.S. The book, “Health Statistics: Shaping Policy and Practice to Improve the Population’s Health,” provides a comprehensive account of the concepts of health statistics.

Here’s the table of contents of the compilation.

Section 1: Defining Health Statistics: Context, History, and Organization

1. Health Statistics: Definition and Conceptual Framework

2. Health Statistics in Historical Perspective

3. The Health Statistics Enterprise

Section 2: Collecting and Compiling Health Statistics

4. Health Statistics from Notifications, Registration Systems, and Registries

5. Health Surveys

6. Administrative Health Data

7. Health Statistics from Non-Health Sources

8. Standards and Their Use in Health Statistics

9. Linking, Combining, and Disseminating Data for Understanding the Population’s Health

Section 3: Using Health Statistics

10. Using Health Statistics: From Data to Information to Knowledge

11. Why Truth Matters: Health Statistics in Health Policy

12. Health Statistics in Public Health Practice

Section 4: Identifying Current and Forthcoming Issues in Health Statistics

13. Population Health Monitoring

14. Privacy, Confidentiality, and Health Statistics

15. New Technologies, the Internet, and Health Statistics

16. Modeling Health — the Role of Simulation Models in 21st Century Health Information Systems

Section 5: Transforming Health Statistics through New Conceptual Frameworks

17. Recent Developments in Health Information: An International Perspective

18. From Health Statistics to Health Information Systems: A New Path for the 21st Century

19. Population Health: New Paradigms and Implications for Health Information

20. Health Statistics and the National Health Information Infrastructure: A View from the United States

Summing Up: Towards a 21st Century Vision for Health Statistics

Get it from the Oxford University Press.