Speaker / Adam Smith

Adam works as a Senior Analyst Manager on the Making Data Count programme at NHS England. He has been an analyst for over 15 years working mostly with performance and improvement data at large acute Trusts but also has experience working for commissioners, community providers and public health. Adam supports people to use their data for better decision making and to use that information to make improvements to patient care. This includes delivery of various training offers, creating templates, tools & dashboards and giving expert advice on presenting and analysing data.

The Making Data Count team are strong proponents of using Statistical Process Control (SPC) to look at data rather than two point comparisons and Red Amber Green (RAG) reports. The team have authored three highly successful guides to making data count and over the past 3 years has undertaken a considerable amount of work with over 190 Trust boards to help them understand how to use data to better effect. As a result of this work 100% of boards have made the decision to move away from RAG reporting and adopted SPC as their preferred approach. The benefits of this change have been significant and are described in this BMJ paper. Adam is not an accountant but spent the last year learning all about finance data and how the Making Data Count approach can help organisations to see their traditionally reported financial metrics in a different way by plotting the dots as time series SPC charts.