TABLE OF CONTENTS
Purpose
This article provides an overview of navigating DIR interactive reports developed with Tableau software. The CT Standardardized Dose Index Report is used to provide examples of how you can query, filter and navigate data to identify patterns and gain performance insights.
Note: You can also watch the video demos working with interactive reports, including how to download data and work with date filters.
Dashboards
The reports contain multiple tabs called dashboards that appear across the top as shown in the screenshot below. Each dashboard has three help features in the upper left corner. Select:
The Help link to view a report overlay that describes the report functionality
The info icon (blue circle) to gain insight into the report
The Read about this report to read a Knowledge Base article that has more report details.
Filters and Parameters
Interactive reports use filters and parameters to help users analyze performance data.
Filters provide choices for selecting criteria to restrict what data are shown. For example, the Facility ID filter in the Exam Search dashboard shown above lists all facilities available to the user by directly querying the dataset.
Parameters are inputs that change what a user sees or how data is computed in the report. For example, the Boxplot by Scanner report uses several parameters, including
DIR Measure: Selects which Dose Index type to chart. The maximum CTDIvol value across all scans (CTDIvol Max Across Scans), the sum total Dose Length Product for the exam (DLP Total for Exam), etc.
Query by: Determines whether the RPID / Study Description filter displays standardized RPID exam names or the facility’s own Study Descriptions.
Scanner Aggregation Level: Determines whether to aggregate scanner data in the chart by device, model, or manufacturer.
Note: A Corporate Account and at least one Facility must be selected to display data.
Click anywhere on a filter to display a list of possible values. Filters that allow more than one selection have an Apply button so that you can select multiple values and control when they are applied to the report. The Apply button is greyed out until at least one value is selected.
Click on the desired values, then click the Apply button to apply the changes, and then click anywhere on the report to close the filter selection window.
For filters with lots of values, a search bar appears for wildcard searches. For example, typing AB in the filter example shown at the right quickly restricts the filter to only RPIDs with the letters AB appearing anywhere in the description. Searches are not case-sensitive. The values in some filters are dynamic and are determined by the values selected in other filters.
Downloading Dashboards
Choosing Image or PDF creates a .png or PDF file of the current screen. These options capture only what is visible on screen, i.e. what you can see without scrolling.
Data creates a .csv file of the rows meeting the current filter criteria. The Summary tab includes the fields displayed on the screen, and the Full Data tab includes additional fields that meet filter criteria but may not be displayed in the report.
Crosstab creates a .csv in a cross-tabular format. This is the best format to use when trying to download data into a spreadsheet, such as Excel. If the Crosstab options are greyed out, click on the blank space just above the chart or table you want to download. For example, the Scatterplot Over Time report has three data sections: scatterplot, scanner statistics table, and registry statistics table. Each of these may be downloaded. Click just above a chart or table, then click the Download button and select Crosstab.
Highlighting and Details
Most dashboards feature functionality that enables you to highlight segments of data and hover over data points for additional information. For example, positioning the cursor over a single data point in the Scatterplot Over Time dashboard provides detailed data about a particular exam. Clicking on the data point highlights similar exams. All exams taken with the same scanner are highlighted. To undo highlighting, click on the data point a second time.
For tables, the highlighting feature works when clicking on a data value in the table. Hovering over the value 3.56 in the table, below, brings up more details for the exam.
Reports with legends also allow you to highlight a specific item by clicking on the legend. By clicking on a single scanner in the Scatterplot report data points for all other scanners are highlighted.
User Filters
You can also apply your own filter to exclude data when interacting with a chart legend, marks on a chart, or data in a table. This can be particularly useful if a chart or table has lots of data and you want to focus on specific items. The scatterplot below has more than 700 marks for three facilities and four scanners for a single study and age group. Using the facility legend, you can highlight data for a single facility. However, there are still many data points and it appears there are multiple scanners for this facility, as indicated by the different shapes, but it is difficult to make out the patterns.
You can also highlight the chart by different scanners by clicking on one from the legend, rather than highlighting by facility, but that would show the data for the selected scanner across all facilities. Alternatively, we can click on the facility in the legend and then click on Keep Only to keep only the marks for the highlighted facility (selecting Exclude would exclude all marks for that facility and keep the remaining facilities.)
We can highlight each scanner, using the Scanner legend, to see the patterns more clearly. To undo the filter, click on the Undo button, located in the bottom left corner of the screen.
