Variability

The way care is provided to any given patient depends on all kinds of factors—and the way the care is delivered and more importantly the way the data is captured may vary from time to time or place to place. For example, what a clinician reads in the medical literature, where they trained, or the professional opinion of a colleague down the hall, or how a patient expresses herself during her initial exam all may play a role in what happens next. Such variability means data can only be meaningfully interpreted when care setting and delivery process is taken into context.