The Visualization of Health Care Data A overview of information visualization tools in the health care data domain By Dan Rosenstein 17:610:554 Fall 2015

Definitions of Financial Data The visualization of health care data is a varied area that has a myriad of different approaches The topics covered are varied. It can range from insurance, Obamacare, hospital rankings, Medicare and so on. The data is endless. Healthcare Data Is unique and can be difficult to measure because it is always changing.

Clusters of Tools I've separated these healthcare data visualizations into five distinct data sets: Geographic Models Dashboards Tree maps Charting Tools Hybrid Tools

Cluster #1: Geographic Models CountyHealthRankings.org Census Visual.ly New York Times LA Times Health Map.Org Arthritis AAAP

Characteristics of Geographic Models Geographic models are a set of tools and techniques supporting geospatial data analysis through the use of interactive visualization. These tools use a visual display on a globe or map. It primarily uses color, sometimes different shades of the same color or different colors entirely to depict data. This data can be broken down categorically by continent, country, state, county, borough, etc. Some of the designs are not broken down that way and just show a geographic map which is similar to what your car GPS would show. Some have the ability to explore different layers of the map, to zoom in or out, and to change the visual appearance of the map, usually on a computer display.

Model Tool NYTIMES Where Poor and Uninsured Americans Live /02/us/uninsured-americans- map.html?_r=2&

IV Toolbox #1

Cluster #2 TreeMaps GDB Compare|VizHub ( California HealthCare Foundation (

Characteristics of #2 Tree maps display hierarchical (tree-structured) data as a set of nested rectangles. Each branch of the tree is given a rectangle, which is then tiled with smaller rectangles representing sub-branches. A leaf node's rectangle has an area proportional to specified data dimensions. Often the leaf nodes are colored to show a separate dimension of the data. When the color and size dimensions are correlated in some way with the tree structure, one can often easily see patterns that would be difficult to spot in other ways, such as if a certain color is particularly relevant. A second advantage of tree maps is that, by construction, they make efficient use of space. As a result, they can legibly display thousands of items on the screen simultaneously. In information visualization and computing, tree mapping is a method for displaying hierarchical data by using nested rectangles.

Model Tool #2 GDB Compare|VizHub

IV Toolbox for #2

Cluster #3 Dashboards IDasboard (idashboards.com) DataWatch Health Care Dashbard

Characteristics of #3 Dashboard popularity is continuing to grow as organizations look for easier ways to access information within large data sets and to analyze that information in hopes of managing performance, making better decisions and lowering overall costs. This visualization can be a combination of bar charts, stacked bar charts, pie charts, heat maps, geographic maps and others. It most resembles a speedometer found in the dashboards of automobiles. The needles on these dashboard icons can display the relative placement of a data set between two extremes, which depend on what sort of tool is being used.

Model #3 Tool DataWatch Health Care Dashbard 6b-609f-4b54-9e81-8ac7629a2798/Healthcare- performance-dashboard.png

IV Toolbox for #3

Cluster #4 Charting Software iCharts (icharts.net) Eagereyes ( GE ( DataPine ( PDViz.com (Power of Data Visualization)

Characteristics of #4 Charting tools refer to tools such as tables, bar graphs, vertical and horizontal line graphs, time lines, or pie charts. This is a varied group and to me, they are considered as the “basics of data visualization”. A lot of us grew up viewing these visualizations or saw them on standardized tests in school. Charts and graphs are a large part of this data domain set.

Model #4 GE The Actual Cost of Getting Sick izing_the_cost_of_getting_sick.html#extended

IV Toolbox for #4

Cluster #5 Hybrid Tools The Pew Charitable Trusts Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Washington Post Fusion Charts

Characteristics of #5 These hybrid tools allow the end user to see the same data in different types of charts. It can be seen either on a map, line chart, bar chart, scatterplot, etc. The main concept is that the user can interact with the data and choose which format best fits the data they are trying to view.

Model #5 Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Causes of Death Metric

IV Toolbox for #5

Conclusion I found this to be a very rewarding project. There is a lot of emotion in this country when it comes to health care and systems around the world very much vary from one another. The numbers don't lie and I often wish people would look at the data before forming an opinion; not just about healthcare, but everything in general. For this assignment, I was looking for the best visualizations that told me a story. Some of these elements include: using sharp contrasts, visual grouping, use the pop out effect, Maximize the data-ink ratio, Maximize data density, Direct Manipulation, provide Immediate feedback, linked displays, Dynamic Queries, tight coupling, and increase information density. As I stated in the introduction, a good visualization tool keeps the end user engaged and allows them to see different types of data. Many of the health care data visualizations listed here do that and can make the public better educated in their decision making and views on topics.

Bibliography Whitney, Hunter (2010). Beyond the Medical Chart: Information visualization for improving personal and public health. UX Magazine. Article no: 568 California Healthcare Foundation (2014).Worth a Thousand Words: How to Display Health Data.This article can be retrieved at aViz.pdf Hopkins, Dan (2015). How Healthcare Visualizations can Improve Organizational Buy-In. This article can be retrieved at Shneiderman, Ben; Plaisant, Catherine&Hesse, Bradford W. (2015).Improving Health and Healthcare with Interactive Visualization Methods.This article can be retrieved athttps:// Plummer, Ben (2014).Visualizing Big Data in Healthcare IT.Healthcare Business Today.This article can be retrieved athttp:// Heubl, Ben (2014) Can Public Health Data Mapping and Visualization Transform Healthcare Globally?This article can be retrieved athttp://hitconsultant.net/2014/07/31/can-public-health-data-mapping-transform- healthcare-globally/

Bibliography Continued Venkatraman, Archana (2014). Ipswich hospital improves healthcare service with Esri data visualization. This article can be retrieved at hospital-improves-healthcare-service-with-Esri-data-visualisation-tools Watson, Zach (2015). Common data visualizations for healthcare Organizations This article can be retrieved at g/common-data-visualizations-for-healthcare-organizations/ (2014) Data visualization to fine-tune healthcare.This article can be retrieved At