Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40581801›Full record

SynthesisJournal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA2025

Supporting clinical reasoning through visual summarization and presentation of patient data: a systematic review.

Hao Fan, Angela Hardi, Po-Yin Yen

Abstract readSystematic Review
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
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

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Clinical decision-making and artificial intelligence.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2025
    Article
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

3 authors.

Hao FanInstitute for Informatics, Data Science and Biostatistics, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63110, United States.ORCID 0000-0001-6853-893X
Angela HardiBernard Becker Medical Library, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63110, United States.
Po-Yin YenInstitute for Informatics, Data Science and Biostatistics, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63110, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-7061-4185

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesClinicians retrieve data from electronic health record (EHR) systems and summarize them into clinical information to accomplish clinical reasoning and decision-making tasks. Visualization, using meaningful summarization methods and intuitive presentation approaches, can enhance this process. This systematic review examines how EHR data are summarized, visualized, and aligned with the 7 clinical reasoning and decision-making tasks shared by clinicians. MATERIALS AND

methodsWe searched 7 databases for research articles on individual patient EHR related to visualization, clinical decision-support, and patient summaries. Evidence from included studies was extracted for EHR data types, information summarization methods, visualization strategies, clinician characteristics, and evaluations. The synthesized evidence generated data-information-visualization (data-info-vis) flows.

resultsWe included 112 studies of which 70 (62.5%) conducted detailed usability evaluations, while 42 (37.5%) did not report any evaluations. Gaps remain in deriving actionable insights from EHR data, particularly for tasks requiring data quality reports. Three representative data-info-vis flows emerge. The first uses structured data to generate patterns for temporal visualizations, supporting tasks such as diagnosis and patient management. The second abstracts data into miniature charts, aiding situation-aware understanding and knowledge synthesis. The third features high-level visual metaphors for complex and overarching tasks, such as achieving better care. DISCUSSION AND

conclusionThis review identifies 2 primary visualization strategies: (1) timeline-based presentations emphasizing temporal trends and longitudinal tracking, and (2) snapshot-based approaches focusing on status overviews and rapid assessments. The identified critical design approaches and distinct data-info-vis flows are tailored to clinical reasoning and decision-making tasks, offering insights for developing visualization-based decision-support tools.

Indexed as

Clinical Decision-MakingClinical ReasoningData VisualizationDecision Support Systems, ClinicalElectronic Health RecordsInformation Storage and RetrievalHumansclinical decision supportclinical reasoningclinical taskelectronic health recordvisualization

Identifiers

PMID40581801
PMCPMC12361860

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
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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.