Team “DataVis” explored Prop 29, which would impose new rules on dialysis clinics including requiring at least one physician or nurse practitioner on site or remotely available during operating hours. By using CA state data on specialty care clinics and physician salaries, this team calculated the net expenditures of dialysis clinics and investigated whether adding a physician to a clinic could cause it to shut down. While they acknowledge limitations of the data and approach used, their preliminary findings indicate that some clinics will likely lose revenue if the proposition passes, with potential impacts for patient costs and accessibility although quantifying those was outside the scope of their analysis. Exploring positive potential operational improvements were the proposition to pass, including benefits to patient quality of care, would be an interesting next step for this research.
Team members include undergraduate students Sai Sindura Vuppu (Statistics), Srihita Ramini (Cognitive Science & Computer Science), Vibha Raju, (Computer Science) and Vaishnavi Kulkarni (Applied Mathematics).