Lying by Telling the Truth: How Data Can Be Manipulated to Support and Propagate Fallacies and Falsehoods in Healthcare 4218

     In recent years, the healthcare landscape has seen an explosion of patient data from diversified data sources in various formats with great interest in harnessing the power of computational intelligence models, algorithms, tools, and techniques for reaping valuable healthcare insights and patterns. Similarly, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation fields have evolved to incorporate more data and advanced analytics into clinical practice and decision making. However, in various industries where big data and data science are applied, there is a growing awareness that successful implementation of big data initiatives relies on accurate analytical methods including error handling, data validation and proper translation to data visualizations. To audiences who are not deeply literate in data analytics, it may be difficult to parse out if the presented data is incorrect, explicitly being misrepresented or correct data which has errors in its presentation. This lecture seeks to build a foundational data literacy in a healthcare audience to be able to discern these data issues and avoid practicing in ways unsupported by data. Additionally, integrating data into clinical practice can be difficult if presented with assertions of data through informal logical fallacies: arguments made that are seemingly sensible though deemed unsound through an appraisal of the structure of the arguments . A second goal of this lecture will be to explore the world of informal logical fallacies as they present in the healthcare space through common logical fallacies deployed in the discussion of practice evidence. The audience will also be given strategies to identify the fallacies presented and rebut such fallacious arguments.