Introducing VALD Norms
We are excited to announce the release of Norms: integrated normative data in VALD Hub. Starting with ForceDecks data then rolling out across all of our products’ datasets in 2024, Norms are another significant milestone on our journey to provide intuitive, actionable insights to our clients and improve outcomes in all settings: healthcare, performance, defense and more.
By embedding normative data within VALD Hub, we are able to offer a more comprehensive and context-rich framework for evaluating an individual’s data.
Our clients have recorded tens of millions of tests on over one million individuals from a myriad of demographics
Check out ForceDecks Norms, fully integrated into VALD Hub.
Since the launch of our first product, we have provided normative data to our clients – first in manual reports, then in interactive online reports and now integrated into VALD Hub reports. Over the years, time and time again, we have been reminded of how important normative data is for providing context, enabling communication and informing decision making.
By embedding normative data within VALD Hub, we are able to offer a more comprehensive and context-rich framework for evaluating your patients’, athletes’ and personnel’s data.
This new feature is not intended to simply add another layer of data; it enriches the analytical capabilities of our clients, providing them with a deeper understanding of each of the performance of the individuals they work with in relation to their peers.
VALD’s Data Cleansing Process: Delivering data you can trust
When we provide Norms to our clients, we know that this comes with a responsibility to ensure it is accurate and reliable. We understand that inaccurate data is potentially worse than no data at all.
We understand that inaccurate data is potentially worse than no data at all.
We are committed to providing our users with normative data that is not only comprehensive but also meticulously validated and – of course – anonymized, private and secure. In order to ensure Norms are as clean, accurate and reliable as possible, data from the VALD Data Lakehouse (our database of tens of millions of de-identified data points) goes through a rigorous filtering process. This process removes junk data, sifts out data which is missing context and delivers a dataset that is highly representative of the underlying population.
we know that we are getting clean, accurate Norms based on hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of similar individuals in each demographic.
As the diagram above illustrates, the data cleansing process results in a dataset that is smaller than the original one that enters the funnel. However, with millions of data points to work with, we know that we are getting clean, accurate Norms based on hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of similar individuals in each demographic.
How do VALD Norms work?
If you are a ForceDecks user, it is likely that VALD Norms are already enabled and waiting for you in VALD Hub. Norms are enabled for essentially every ForceDecks test, metric, age group and for both males and females.
Norms are enabled for essentially every ForceDecks test, metric, age group and for both males and females.
When you conduct a test and review the results in an individual’s profile, you will now notice new normative data elements integrated into profile dashboard tiles, which use data matched to the age and sex of the individual. This feature ensures that you are always equipped with the most relevant benchmarks and it is shown exactly where you need it – overlaid directly on an individual’s data.
When you conduct a test and review the results in an individual’s profile, you will now notice new normative data elements integrated into profile dashboard tiles
For instance, a 30-year-old male client’s jump test performance will be directly compared to the normative range of his demographic, which is based on data from thousands of other 30 year old males. This reference point helps users immediately understand the context of an individual’s current performance.
Longitudinal Tracking: Measure the impact over time
Whilst having context of results within a session is important, arguably it is more meaningful to track these results over time. So in addition to showing normative data results for a given test, this can also be tracked in VALD Hub over time between sessions.
Interpreting Percentile Ranges
Overlaid on each result is a shaded percentile range (25th to 75th percentiles), providing an easy-to-understand visual and statistical representation of how the individual’s performance compares to their peers.
Overlaid on each result is a shaded percentile range (25th to 75th percentiles), providing an easy-to-understand visual and statistical representation of how the individual’s performance compares to their peers.
This helps in setting realistic goals and expectations based on large scale, reliable population-level data, which is particularly useful in health and rehabilitation settings where the aim is often to return to or maintain ‘normal’ functional levels.
Putting Norms into Practice
In practical terms, this means that during a session, you can quickly identify how an individual’s performance measures up and make informed decisions on the spot. For instance, if their score falls below the 25th percentile, it might prompt a discussion about a targeted exercise intervention. Conversely, if their score is above the 75th percentile, it may be an indicator of promising rehabilitation progress, or that the treatment or exercise program can shift focus to other areas of deficiency.
As with all VALD data, VALD Norms do not make predictions or decisions for our clients, replace their clinical intuition … They are simply intended to provide our clients with more context … to serve their patients, athletes and personnel better.
As with all VALD data, VALD Norms do not make predictions or decisions for our clients, replace their clinical intuition or provide guidance on diagnoses, prognoses or treatment decisions. They are simply intended to provide our clients – highly trained, highly skilled practitioners – with more context, more convenience and more powerful tools to help serve their patients, athletes and personnel better.
Facilitating Meaningful Conversations
Norms are an excellent new way to facilitate conversations with your patients, clients or athletes. It provides a visual and tangible point of reference for discussions about their health and progress. This can be leveraged to be a powerful tool in increasing motivation and engagement during a health, performance and/or rehabilitation journey.
What is next for Norms?
We are extremely excited to make ForceDecks Norms available to our clients around the world, particularly given Norms would not be possible without them.Norms will continue to expand to leverage millions of data points from other VALD systems, plus more demographics, more granularity and more powerful datasets over time.At VALD, we are extremely passionate about Norms and data, so if you want to learn more, we would love to chat.
