u/ImaginationBig4641

I analysed a dataset exploring doctors’ well-being and its association with patient care outcomes across hospitals. Patients usually saw more than one doctor during data collection, so doctor-level data and patient-level outcome data were not linked at the individual level. Because I have data from multiple hospitals, I aggregated both doctor well-being and patient care outcomes to the hospital level.

I explained this in the methods section, but received a comment asking me to discuss the benefits of aggregated data. I'm unclear on this. I've mainly seen aggregation as a necessary devil and as a loss of information.

What are the benefits of aggregation?