In medical coding, abstracting means pulling the meaningful facts out of a document and translating them into something usable. That is what this publication does with public health data.
My name is Andrew. I am studying Health Information Management and working toward a graduate degree in epidemiology. I hold certifications in professional and emergency department coding, and I am hard of hearing, which shapes a lot of what I pay attention to and why.
This publication covers several things. I write about how public health data gets made, where it falls short, and what those gaps mean for how we understand disease. I advocate for the deaf and hard of hearing community, particularly around conditions and complications that get undercounted or ignored in surveillance data. I also publish coding tutorials and historical pieces for anyone who wants to learn medical coding, whether for a career, out of curiosity, or just to make sense of their own medical records.
I have watched disinformation cost people their health and their trust in the systems meant to protect them, which is what keeps me writing.
If any of that interests you, you are in the right place.