Data Analysis & Reporting Flashcards
7 cards from real CMC practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Data Analysis & Reporting flashcards as text
A hospital's CHF readmission rate is 22%, compared to the national benchmark of 18%. Which next step is most appropriate before implementing changes?
Answer: Perform a root cause analysis to identify contributing factors
Root cause analysis identifies specific drivers of the gap before interventions are chosen, ensuring solutions are targeted and evidence-based.
In cardiac clinical trial reporting, what does 'intention-to-treat' (ITT) analysis mean?
Answer: Patients are analyzed in the group they were randomized to, regardless of adherence
ITT analysis preserves the benefits of randomization by including all patients in their originally assigned groups, minimizing bias from dropout or crossover.
Which confidence interval interpretation is correct for a cardiac drug trial reporting a hazard ratio of 0.75 (95% CI: 0.60–0.94)?
Answer: If the study were repeated 100 times, about 95 of the intervals would contain the true HR
Confidence intervals represent the long-run frequency property: 95% of such intervals constructed from repeated samples would contain the true population parameter.
A cardiac quality improvement team wants to identify which of 15 possible factors most contributes to prolonged ICU length of stay. Which tool is most appropriate first?
Answer: Pareto chart
A Pareto chart ranks contributing factors by frequency or impact, identifying the vital few causes responsible for the majority of the problem.
In ACC/AHA performance measure reporting, what is 'care gap'?
Answer: The proportion of eligible patients who did not receive a guideline-recommended therapy
A care gap measures the percentage of eligible patients who failed to receive a recommended intervention, directly quantifying adherence to evidence-based guidelines.
When comparing cardiac outcomes data between two hospitals, which factor most threatens the validity of a direct comparison without adjustment?
Answer: Case mix differences between the patient populations
Case mix differences mean hospitals may treat patients with very different baseline risks, making unadjusted comparisons misleading about true quality differences.
Which data visualization is most appropriate for displaying the relationship between ejection fraction and 6-minute walk distance in a cohort of heart failure patients?
Answer: Scatter plot
A scatter plot shows the relationship between two continuous variables, allowing visualization of correlation patterns between EF and functional capacity.