Medicine and the McNamara fallacy

The ‘McNamara fallacy’ (also known as quantitative fallacy) is named after the US Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War. The fallacy consists of over-reliance on metrics, and may be summarised as: ‘if it cannot be measured, it is not important’. This paper describes the McNamara fallacy as it...

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Main Author:	S O’Mahony
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 2017-09-01
Series:	The Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
Subjects:	health metrics hospital mortality rates McNamara fallacy quality assurance targets
Online Access:	https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/files/jrcpe_47_3_omahony.pdf

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spelling	doaj-a4034a44655447c1a625ad5b3358d50b2020-11-25T01:04:45ZengRoyal College of Physicians of EdinburghThe Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh1478-27152042-81892017-09-0147328128710.4997/JRCPE.2017.315Medicine and the McNamara fallacyS O’MahonyThe ‘McNamara fallacy’ (also known as quantitative fallacy) is named after the US Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War. The fallacy consists of over-reliance on metrics, and may be summarised as: ‘if it cannot be measured, it is not important’. This paper describes the McNamara fallacy as it applies to medicine and healthcare, taking as examples hospital mortality data, NHS targets and quality assurance.https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/files/jrcpe_47_3_omahony.pdfhealth metricshospital mortality ratesMcNamara fallacyquality assurancetargets
collection	DOAJ
language	English
format	Article
sources	DOAJ
author	S O’Mahony
spellingShingle	S O’Mahony Medicine and the McNamara fallacy The Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh health metrics hospital mortality rates McNamara fallacy quality assurance targets
author_facet	S O’Mahony
author_sort	S O’Mahony
title	Medicine and the McNamara fallacy
title_short	Medicine and the McNamara fallacy
title_full	Medicine and the McNamara fallacy
title_fullStr	Medicine and the McNamara fallacy
title_full_unstemmed	Medicine and the McNamara fallacy
title_sort	medicine and the mcnamara fallacy
publisher	Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
series	The Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
issn	1478-2715 2042-8189
publishDate	2017-09-01
description	The ‘McNamara fallacy’ (also known as quantitative fallacy) is named after the US Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War. The fallacy consists of over-reliance on metrics, and may be summarised as: ‘if it cannot be measured, it is not important’. This paper describes the McNamara fallacy as it applies to medicine and healthcare, taking as examples hospital mortality data, NHS targets and quality assurance.
topic	health metrics hospital mortality rates McNamara fallacy quality assurance targets
url	https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/files/jrcpe_47_3_omahony.pdf
work_keys_str_mv	AT somahony medicineandthemcnamarafallacy
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Medicine and the McNamara fallacy

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