Speech language pathologists are good at collecting data: for accountability and to justify our treatment decisions. The Affordable Care Act and Medicare require us to detect, measure and represent progress, and to use the most effective treatments to ensure that progress will be made.
But with the right tools, data collection can play a more fundamental role in our daily clinical decision making. “Without data, informed decisions concerning client management cannot be made* [Olswang and Bain, 1994, p.55]