The Global Health Dashboard Epidemic

Series: Communicating Data for Health Impact

“We have an epidemic of dashboards…we have a dashboard of dashboards.”

In November 2018, I attended a meeting where a government health policy maker from West Africa shared this honest description of global health data visualization in his country. The audience — predominantly public health professionals — laughed.

His comment (and clever use of public health jargon) has stuck with me. I think it’s an accurate reflection of global health data visualization in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Dashboards and exploratory data tools dominate data visualization in global health and are frequently treated as go-to solutions to encourage evidence-based decision-making. What led to their dominance and is this unwelcome tyranny?

What triggered the epidemic?

There is a need to measure progress.

Over the past few decades, demand to measure progress towards global accountability frameworks (like the Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals), country-level health strategic plans, and program impact has elevated the importance of robust monitoring & evaluation plans. Monitoring & evaluation frequently requires data that represent different aspects of health service delivery, which can come from multiple sources. Donors need to see if their investments are translating into measurable…