Historical Application of Statistics in Health Care: William Farr's Influence

Discuss the historical application of statistics in the field of health care.

Statistics have been historically applied in healthcare to create effective strategies to provide high-quality care services and improve the overall well-being of patients. Some of the healthcare areas that benefit from statistics are; quality improvement, research, management of inventory, and patient outcomes in terms of patient satisfaction and length of hospital stay (Pande, 2019). The use of statistics has trickled down to modern healthcare where they are used for quality measurement. Data and quality indicators are collected over a specific time and it is analyzed for specific interventions (Pande, 2019). Examples of data and quality indicators are adverse events such as falls, the process of care delivery, the rate of hospital admission, and the mortality rate of the patients.

Describe an example, other than Florence Nightingale's contributions, where the statistical application has greatly influenced or changed healthcare operations or practice.

One historical figure who has influenced healthcare practice is William Farr. William Farr was an early statistician and epidemiologist who concentrated on analyzing statistics on death and determining the causes of death (Heneghan eghan & Jefferson, 2020). These statistics have been used to date to analyze epidemics and mortality. According to Farr, epidemics rise and fall in a normal distribution curve. When a peak infection is reached, it follows the same symmetrical patterns when going down the slope. However, due to under-testing, it becomes impossible to know when the peak infections have occurred. The statistical knowledge by William Farr can be utilized to determine at what time as it was in the case of Covid-19. The lag time for Covid-19 deaths was 21 to 28 days (Heneghan eghan & Jefferson, 2020). Once the peak death was achieved, the scientists worked on the assumption that the infection rate would start to fall. Utilization of deaths as a measure of decreased falls facilitated the planning of the course of actions and reopening of the boundaries.

References

• Heneghan, C., & Jefferson, T. (2020). COVID-19: William Farr's way out of the Pandemic. Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine. https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-william-farrs-way-out-of-the-pandemic/
• Pande, S. (2019). Applications of statistics in the medical Field. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/applications-statistics-medical-field-suchita-pande/