SynthesisApplied clinical informatics2019
A Systematic Review of Patient-Facing Visualizations of Personal Health Data.
Synthesis in Applied clinical informatics, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 54 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
54 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Patient Experiences With Online Laboratory Test Presentations From Access to Activation: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Pooled it
- Enhancing Patient Understanding of Laboratory Test Results: Systematic Review of Presentation Formats and Their Impact on Perception, Decision, Action, and Memory.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Pooled it
- Integrating Shared Decision-Making into Undergraduate Oncology Education: A Pedagogical Framework.Journal of cancer education : the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Education · 2024Pooled it
- Digital Health Technologies for Long-term Self-management of Osteoporosis: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2022Pooled it
- Are interactive and tailored data visualizations effective in promoting flu vaccination among the elderly? Evidence from a randomized experiment.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2024Trial
- Feasibility, acceptability, and usability of a novel self-monitoring program utilizing a consumer-grade wearable device paired with sleep-related patient-reported outcomes for veterans with obstructive sleep apnea.Human factors in healthcare · 2026Article
- Digital Platform to Provide Health Data Feedback for Neurorehabilitation Patients: User-Centered Development and Proof-of-Concept Usability Study.JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologies · 2026Article
- Designing Emotion-Integrated Visualizations for Kidney Function Self-Management: User-Centered Design Study With Youth Transplant Recipients and Caregivers.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Preferences for an Experience Sampling Method-Based Tool as an Adjunct to Usual Treatment in Patients With Problem Substance Use: Qualitative Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- ShinyEvents: harmonizing longitudinal data for real-world survival estimation.NPJ precision oncology · 2026Article
- Visualization of Experience Sampling Method Data in Mental Health: Qualitative Study of the Physicians' Perspective in Germany.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Effects of information framing cues and age on the comprehension of personal health records for self-care behaviors: an eye-tracking study.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2025Article
- Unpacking Digital Dashboards' Influence on Preventive Health Behavior Among Young Adults.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Improving the Implementation of Patient-Reported Outcome Measure in Clinical Practice: Tackling Current Challenges With Innovative Digital Communication Technologies.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- "Less words, more pictures": creating and sharing data visualizations from a remote health monitoring system with clinicians to improve cancer pain management.Frontiers in digital health · 2025Article
- Design of patient-facing immunization visualizations affects task performance: an experimental comparison of 4 electronic visualizations.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2024Article
- Navigating normalcy: designing personal health visualizations for pediatric kidney transplant recipients and caregivers.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2024Article
- The Role of Visualization in Estimating Cardiovascular Disease Risk: Scoping Review.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Article
- "It Attracts Your Eyes and Brain": Refining Visualizations for Shared Decision-Making with Heart Failure Patients.Applied clinical informatics · 2024Article
- Sociodemographic Differences in Perspectives on Postpartum Symptom Reporting.Applied clinical informatics · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesAs personal health data are being returned to patients with increasing frequency and volume, visualizations are garnering excitement for their potential to facilitate patient interpretation. Evaluating these visualizations is important to ensure that patients are able to understand and, when appropriate, act upon health data in a safe and effective manner. The objective of this systematic review was to review and evaluate the state of the science of patient-facing visualizations of personal health data.
methodsWe searched five scholarly databases (PubMed, Embase, Scopus, ACM Digital Library [Association for Computing Machinery Digital Library], and IEEE Computational Index [Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computational Index]) through December 1, 2018 for relevant articles. We included English-language articles that developed or tested one or more patient-facing visualizations for personal health data. Three reviewers independently assessed quality of included articles using the Mixed methods Appraisal Tool. Characteristics of included articles and visualizations were extracted and synthesized.
resultsIn 39 articles included in the review, there was heterogeneity in the sample sizes and methods for evaluation but not sample demographics. Few articles measured health literacy, numeracy, or graph literacy. Line graphs were the most common visualization, especially for longitudinal data, but number lines were used more frequently in included articles over past 5 years. Article findings suggested more patients understand the number lines and bar graphs compared with line graphs, and that color is effective at communicating risk, improving comprehension, and increasing confidence in interpretation.
conclusionIn this review, we summarize types and components of patient-facing visualizations and methodologies for development and evaluation in the reviewed articles. We also identify recommendations for future work relating to collecting and reporting data, examining clinically actionable boundaries for diverse data types, and leveraging data science. This work will be critically important as patient access of their personal health data through portals and mobile devices continues to rise.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.