Data Journalism in Action: ProPublica's Surgeon Scorecard

Investigative stories often start with a powerful, personal story that exemplifies a bigger issue at the heart of the investigation. ProPublica's investigation into surgeon complication rates has such a beginning.

But ProPublica takes the story to another level — spending three years to build a list of nearly 17,000 surgeons and their complication rates so anyone can check their doctor's track record.

Reporters Olga Pierce and Marshall Allen studied almost 75 million hospital visits billed to Medicare looking for eight common, elective surgeries. They then looked to see whether the same person returned to the hospital for what appeared to be complications from the surgery. Their full methodology is spelled out here.

The list definitely has limitations — the main one being that it only includes surgeries covered by Medicare. But it's a list that didn't exist before, and will certainly add to the information available to patients before they go under the knife.