Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36503436›Full record

ArticleBMC bioinformatics2022

Graph4Med: a web application and a graph database for visualizing and analyzing medical databases.

Jero Schäfer, Ming Tang, Danny Luu, Anke Katharina Bergmann, Lena Wiese

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC bioinformatics, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Jero Schäfer *Institute of Computer Science, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. jeschaef@cs.uni-frankfurt.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7727-1181
Ming Tang *Department of Human Genetics, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Danny LuuDepartment of Human Genetics, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Anke Katharina BergmannDepartment of Human Genetics, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Lena WieseInstitute of Computer Science, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Funding

Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung LeibnizKILabor (grant no. 01DD20003)Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung Promotionsprogramm DigiStrucMed 2020_EKPK.20
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMedical databases normally contain large amounts of data in a variety of forms. Although they grant significant insights into diagnosis and treatment, implementing data exploration into current medical databases is challenging since these are often based on a relational schema and cannot be used to easily extract information for cohort analysis and visualization. As a consequence, valuable information regarding cohort distribution or patient similarity may be missed. With the rapid advancement of biomedical technologies, new forms of data from methods such as Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) or chromosome microarray (array CGH) are constantly being generated; hence it can be expected that the amount and complexity of medical data will rise and bring relational database systems to a limit. DESCRIPTION: We present Graph4Med, a web application that relies on a graph database obtained by transforming a relational database. Graph4Med provides a straightforward visualization and analysis of a selected patient cohort. Our use case is a database of pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Along routine patients' health records it also contains results of latest technologies such as NGS data. We developed a suitable graph data schema to convert the relational data into a graph data structure and store it in Neo4j. We used NeoDash to build a dashboard for querying and displaying patients' cohort analysis. This way our tool (1) quickly displays the overview of patients' cohort information such as distributions of gender, age, mutations (fusions), diagnosis; (2) provides mutation (fusion) based similarity search and display in a maneuverable graph; (3) generates an interactive graph of any selected patient and facilitates the identification of interesting patterns among patients.

conclusionWe demonstrate the feasibility and advantages of a graph database for storing and querying medical databases. Our dashboard allows a fast and interactive analysis and visualization of complex medical data. It is especially useful for patients similarity search based on mutations (fusions), of which vast amounts of data have been generated by NGS in recent years. It can discover relationships and patterns in patients cohorts that are normally hard to grasp. Expanding Graph4Med to more medical databases will bring novel insights into diagnostic and research.

Indexed as

SoftwareChildDatabases, FactualHumansData explorationGraph databaseMedical databaseVisualizationWeb application

Identifiers

PMID36503436
PMCPMC9743588

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

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.